Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

This article comes from the official account of Wechat: SF Chinese (ID:kexuejiaodian), author: SF

Using magnetic particles and special metals, scientists have developed a phase change robot that can switch between liquid and solid.

Translation | Happy

Magnetically active solid-liquid transformation mechanism scientists at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States have developed a robot that can restore solid form after melting into a liquid, much like the Tmur1000 robot in the movie Terminator 2: judgment Day (Terminator 2: Judgment Day).

Photo Source: Terminator 2: judgment Day screenshots to demonstrate the robot's magical ability, the researchers locked it into a cage, turned it into a liquid, slowly flowed out of the cage's fence, and finally returned to solid form outside the cage.

Photo source: Wang and Pan et al. The robot, which can undergo phase transition, is officially named "magnetically active solid-liquid phase change mechanism" and is made by embedding magnetic particles into gallium metal. The melting point of gallium is very low, only 29.8 ℃.

The phase transformation of a robot moving around by manipulating a magnetic field is a process from one physical form to another, including solid, liquid, gas and plasma. Phase transition often occurs after matter gains or loses enough energy.

Specific to this phase change robot, researchers can use an external magnetic field to manipulate the motion of magnetic particles to generate heat. Increasing the magnetic field can raise the temperature of the robot and turn it into liquid, while weakening the magnetic field can make it solid again. By manipulating the magnetic field, scientists can also make robots move around.

"the magnetic particles embedded in the robot have two functions," said Carnegie Majidi, a scientist at Carnegie Mellon University. "one is that the material can sense an alternating magnetic field, so that we can heat the material through magnetic induction and change its phase. Second, it allows us to use the magnetic field to control the movement of the robot, so that it can move."

Exploration of application prospects although the robot is still in the principle verification stage, scientists have already begun to test its effectiveness. They not only successfully used the phase change robot to remove the foreign body in the stomach of the mannequin, but also used it to deliver drugs.

In addition, scientists even used phase change robots to repair circuits. They let it flow slowly to the point of failure that is difficult for other tools to reach for welding, or first flow into the screw hole in the form of liquid, and then turn into a solid, acting as a screw.

"in the future, we will continue to explore the application of this robot in the field of biomedicine," Majidi said. the current work is to verify the principle, and more research and experiments are needed if it is to be actually applied to drug delivery and foreign body removal. "

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