Reversible On-Demand Magnetic Liquid Metal Marble Manipulation by Magnetowetting: Split and Merge, Deformation and Recovery

This paper presents on-demand reversible split and merge, deformation and recovery of a magnetic liquid metal marble coated with iron (Fe) particles by magnetowetting. To manipulate the liquid metal by magnetic field, we coated the liquid metal surface with Fe particles using chemical reaction with diluted hydrochloric acid (He1) solution. By applying various shapes of magnetic field, we investigated split of a magnetic liquid metal marble into 2, 3, and 4 small marbles. We investigated a split time of the magnetic liquid metal marble with the magnetic field by changing the mass of coated Fe particles. In addition, the split and merge time of liquid metal marble with diluted HCl solution and HCl vapor treatment were measured. Finally, as a proof of concept, the proposed reversible on-demand magnetic liquid metal marble manipulation was successfully demonstrated by applying diverse shapes of magnetic field. We investigated the deformability of ~0.6 ratio and the recovery time of ~9 seconds with/without magnetic field for splitted 4 liquid metal marbles.