4.8 Article

Water-processable liquid metal nanoparticles by single-step polymer encapsulation

Journal

NANOSCALE
Volume 12, Issue 25, Pages 13731-13741

Publisher

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY
DOI: 10.1039/d0nr00988a

Keywords

-

Funding

  1. National Key R&D Program of China [2017YFA0205901]
  2. National Natural Science Foundation of China [21535001, 81730051, 21761142006, 21875004]
  3. Chinese Academy of Sciences [QYZDJ-SSW-SLH039, 121D11KYSB20170026, XDA16020902]
  4. Natural Science Foundation of Beijing [2192018]

Ask authors/readers for more resources

Stabilizing metastable colloids such as gallium-based liquid metal nanoparticles (LM NPs) and using them in complex machining processes is a great challenge due to their simple and sensitive surface chemistry against ligand modification and solution processing. Water, a green solvent, is unfortunately not favored by LM NPs in the entire workflow from synthesis to functionalization and application. This dilemma is relieved herein by presenting a sonochemical polymer deposition technique that can produce a water-dispersible LM@polymer hybrid nanomaterial in one step. Water-soluble polymers such as poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) can be directly deposited onto eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) as a coating shell (up to 20 nm) and prevent their rapid and continuous oxidation in aqueous solutions. EGaIn@PVP NPs are stable after preservation for 30 days in water and 60 days in ethanol, and the polymer coating shows solvent-responsive swelling/shrinking behaviors. The LM@polymer NPs can be stably composited with other materials through complex processing and perform desired functions after composition. For demonstration, EGaIn@PVP NPs are employed as active electrode materials for lithium-ion batteries by compositing with water-soluble binders, and exhibit excellent cycling performances with no obvious decay (capacity retention >95%) in more than 700 cycles at 4 A g(-1). This strategy enriches the toolbox for surface engineering of LMs especially under harsh conditions, which can benefit the applications of LM NPs in various scenarios.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.8
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available