CC image courtesy of ALoopingIcon.
A liquid metal which could enable 3D printers to produce flexible gadgets has been developed by researchers at North Carolina State University, in the US.
The technology has been outlined in a paper published in the journal Advanced Materials and the the New York Times’ Bits blog reports it is “stretchable” while tiny dots of the material could be put together to “create larger, bendable sheets of metal”.
The metal is an alloy of gallium and indium and is liquid at room temperature, but when exposed to air it can create a thin skin.
“These stretchable wires can be completely severed with scissors and rapidly self-heal both mechanically and electrically,” the paper writes.
3D printing has already developed at a rapid pace. HumanIPO reported last week a new foot for a duck had been printed, while a 3D gun is already available through prints produced by an American.
