X-ray scattering as an effective tool for characterizing liquid metal composite morphology
X-ray scattering as an effective tool for characterizing liquid metal composite morphology
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X 射线散射作为表征液态金属复合形态的有效工具
DOI：
10.1039/d2sm00796g
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发表时间：
2022
期刊：
影响因子：
3.4
通讯作者：
Bartlett, Michael D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Crater, Erin R.;Tutika, Ravi;Moore, Robert B.;Bartlett, Michael D.
颗粒大小及其分布的定量分析是建立复合材料结构-性能关系的关键。一种新兴的软复合材料体系结构涉及将液态金属液滴分散在弹性体中，从而实现金属和软聚合物的协同性能。这些材料的结构通常是通过真实空间显微镜和图像分析来表征的；然而，这些技术依赖于放大的图像，这些图像可能不能代表液滴的全球平均尺寸和分布。在这项研究中，我们利用超小角度X射线散射(USAXS)作为一种倒置空间表征技术，得到了全球平均尺寸的共晶镓铟(Egain)合金软基复合材料。用统一拟合法和蒙特卡罗散射法测定了复合材料中液态金属液滴的颗粒大小和尺寸分布，并与实空间图像分析结果进行了比较，两者吻合较好。此外，所有方法都表明，当液滴被引入复合材料中时，液滴变大，这表明液滴在分散过程中聚集或可能聚集。这项工作证明了X射线散射的可行性，以阐明液态金属液滴的结构信息，用于软机器人、软电子和多功能材料的材料开发。
Quantitative analysis of particle size and size distribution is crucial in establishing structure–property relationships of composite materials. An emerging soft composite architecture involves dispersing droplets of liquid metal throughout an elastomer, enabling synergistic properties of metals and soft polymers. The structure of these materials is typically characterized through real-space microscopy and image analysis; however, these techniques rely on magnified images that may not represent the global-averaged size and distribution of the droplets. In this study, we utilize ultra-small angle X-ray scattering (USAXS) as a reciprocal-space characterization technique that yields global-averaged dimensions of eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) alloy soft composites. The Unified fit and Monte Carlo scattering methods are applied to determine the particle size and size distributions of the liquid metal droplets in the composites and are shown to be in excellent agreement with results from real-space image analysis. Additionally, all methods indicate that the droplets are getting larger as they are introduced into composites, suggesting that the droplets are agglomerating or possibly coalescing during dispersion. This work demonstrates the viability of X-ray scattering to elucidate structural information about liquid metal droplets for material development for applications in soft robotics, soft electronics, and multifunctional materials.