Liquid Metal Biomedicine

A special issue of Bioengineering (ISSN 2306-5354). This special issue belongs to the section "Regenerative Engineering".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (26 May 2023) | Viewed by 8313

Special Issue Editors

School of Engineering Medicine, Beihang University (BUAA), Beijing 100191, China
Interests: liquid metal; biomaterials; flexible electronics; tumor therapy
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Guest Editor
School of Engineering Medicine, Beihang University (BUAA), Beijing 100191, China
Interests: liquid metals; biomaterials; tumor therapy; soft electronics

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As emerging functional materials, liquid metals have attracted increasing interest in soft robots, stretchable electronics. and biomedicine. In particular, due to their combined merits of fluidity, metal properties, and biocompatibility, they are frequently explored as biomaterials, drug carriers, soft electrodes, etc. to tackle challenging biomedical problems, such as tumor therapy, embolization, nerve connection, bioelectric stimulation, etc. The unique characteristics of liquid metals trigger many original scientific discoveries and technological innovations for biomedical applications. The flowability and low viscosity enable operating liquid metals and their related biomaterials via an easy method of injection. The naturally formed oxide film on the surface improves the adhesion of liquid metals and makes it possible to incorporate with other polymers or particles, greatly expanding into a broad category of liquid metal composites for applications in biomedical electronics. The manipulation on the interface further facilitates the development of various liquid metal printing technologies. Furthermore, scaling down the size into the micro/nano scale can offer more opportunities for biomedical precision diagnosis and therapeutics.

This Special Issue of Bioengineering on “Liquid metal Biomedicine” will focus on original research articles and comprehensive reviews, including but not limited to liquid-metal-based nanomaterials, biomaterials, disease treatment, implanted electronics, wearable electronics, healthcare monitoring, and human–machine interaction.

Prof. Xuyang Sun
Dr. Xuelin Wang
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • liquid metals
  • biomedicine
  • bioelectronics
  • biomedical application
  • wearable devices
  • healthcare monitoring
  • therapeutics

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

12 pages, 4294 KiB  
Article
Liquid Metal-Based Electrode Array for Neural Signal Recording
by Xilong Zhang, Bingxin Liu, Jingru Gao, Yiran Lang, Xiaodong Lv, Zhongshan Deng, Lin Gui, Jing Liu, Rongyu Tang and Lei Li
Bioengineering 2023, 10(5), 578; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering10050578 - 10 May 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2054
Abstract
Neural electrodes are core devices for research in neuroscience, neurological diseases, and neural–machine interfacing. They build a bridge between the cerebral nervous system and electronic devices. Most of the neural electrodes in use are based on rigid materials that differ significantly from biological [...] Read more.
Neural electrodes are core devices for research in neuroscience, neurological diseases, and neural–machine interfacing. They build a bridge between the cerebral nervous system and electronic devices. Most of the neural electrodes in use are based on rigid materials that differ significantly from biological neural tissue in flexibility and tensile properties. In this study, a liquid-metal (LM) -based 20-channel neural electrode array with a platinum metal (Pt) encapsulation material was developed by microfabrication technology. The in vitro experiments demonstrated that the electrode has stable electrical properties and excellent mechanical properties such as flexibility and bending, which allows the electrode to form conformal contact with the skull. The in vivo experiments also recorded electroencephalographic signals using the LM-based electrode from a rat under low-flow or deep anesthesia, including the auditory-evoked potentials triggered by sound stimulation. The auditory-activated cortical area was analyzed using source localization technique. These results indicate that this 20-channel LM-based neural electrode array satisfies the demands of brain signal acquisition and provides high-quality-electroencephalogram (EEG) signals that support source localization analysis. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Liquid Metal Biomedicine)
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12 pages, 4348 KiB  
Article
A Liquid Metal-Enhanced Wearable Thermoelectric Generator
by Wei Liu, Zhenming Li, Yanfang Yang, Chengbo Hu, Zhen Wang and Yongling Lu
Bioengineering 2022, 9(6), 254; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9060254 - 14 Jun 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2058
Abstract
It is a key challenge to continuously power personal wearable health monitoring systems. This paper reports a novel liquid metal-enhanced wearable thermoelectric generator (LM-WTEG that directly converts body heat into electricity for powering the wearable sensor system. The gallium-based liquid metal alloys with [...] Read more.
It is a key challenge to continuously power personal wearable health monitoring systems. This paper reports a novel liquid metal-enhanced wearable thermoelectric generator (LM-WTEG that directly converts body heat into electricity for powering the wearable sensor system. The gallium-based liquid metal alloys with room-temperature melting point (24~30 °C) and high latent heat density (about 500 MJ/m3) are used to design a new flexible finned heat sink, which not only absorbs the heat through the solid-liquid phase change of the LM and enhances the heat release to the ambient air due to its high thermal conduction. The LM finned is integrated with WTEG to present high biaxial flexibility, which could be tightly in contact with the skin. The LM-WTEG could achieve a super high output power density of 275 μW/cm2 for the simulated heat source (37 °C) with the natural convective heat transfer condition. The energy management unit, the multi-parameter sensors (including temperature, humidity, and accelerometer), and Bluetooth module with a total energy consumption of about 65 μW are designed, which are fully powered from LM-WTEG through harvesting body heat. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Liquid Metal Biomedicine)
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13 pages, 2481 KiB  
Article
Laser-Engraved Liquid Metal Circuit for Wearable Electronics
by Shuting Liang, Xingyan Chen, Fengjiao Li and Na Song
Bioengineering 2022, 9(2), 59; https://doi.org/10.3390/bioengineering9020059 - 30 Jan 2022
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3306
Abstract
Conventional patterning methods for producing liquid metal (LM) electronic circuits, such as the template method, use chemical etching, which requires long cycle times, high costs, and multiple-step operations. In this study, a novel and reliable laser engraving micro-fabrication technology was introduced, which was [...] Read more.
Conventional patterning methods for producing liquid metal (LM) electronic circuits, such as the template method, use chemical etching, which requires long cycle times, high costs, and multiple-step operations. In this study, a novel and reliable laser engraving micro-fabrication technology was introduced, which was used to fabricate personalized patterns of LM electronic circuits. First, by digitizing the pattern, a laser printing technology was used to burn a polyethylene (PE) film, where a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) or paper substrate was used to produce grooves. Then, the grooves were filled with LM and the PE film was removed; finally, the metal was packaged with PDMS film. The experimental results showed that the prepared LM could fabricate precise patterned electronic circuits, such as golden serpentine curves and Peano curves. The minimum width and height of the LM circuit were 253 μm and 200 μm, respectively, whereas the printed LM circuit on paper reached a minimum height of 26 μm. This LM flexible circuit could also be adapted to various sensor devices and was successfully applied to heart rate detection. Laser engraving micro-processing technologies could be used to customize various high-resolution LM circuit patterns in a short time, and have broad prospects in the manufacture of flexible electronic equipment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Liquid Metal Biomedicine)
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