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Alkali Metals03:06

Alkali Metals

25.0K
Group 1 elements are soft and shiny metallic solids. They are malleable, ductile, and good conductors of heat and electricity. The melting points of the alkali metals are unusually low for metals and decrease going down the group, while the density increases going down the group with the exception of potassium (Table 1).
Table 1: Properties of the alkali metals
25.0K
Standard Electrode Potentials03:02

Standard Electrode Potentials

50.5K
On comparing the reactivity of silver and lead, it is observed that the two ionic species, Ag+ (aq) and Pb2+ (aq), show a difference in their redox reactivity towards copper: the silver ion undergoes spontaneous reduction, while the lead ion does not. This relative redox activity can be easily quantified in electrochemical cells by a property called cell potential. This property is commonly known as cell voltage in electrochemistry, and it is a measure of the energy which accompanies the charge...
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Bonding in Metals02:32

Bonding in Metals

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Metallic bonds are formed between two metal atoms. A simplified model to describe metallic bonding has been developed by Paul Drüde called the “Electron Sea Model”. 
52.8K
Metallic Solids02:37

Metallic Solids

20.9K
Metallic solids such as crystals of copper, aluminum, and iron are formed by metal atoms. The structure of metallic crystals is often described as a uniform distribution of atomic nuclei within a “sea” of delocalized electrons. The atoms within such a metallic solid are held together by a unique force known as metallic bonding that gives rise to many useful and varied bulk properties.
All metallic solids exhibit high thermal and electrical conductivity, metallic luster, and malleability....
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Metal-Ligand Bonds02:51

Metal-Ligand Bonds

24.5K
The hemoglobin in the blood, the chlorophyll in green plants, vitamin B-12, and the catalyst used in the manufacture of polyethylene all contain coordination compounds. Ions of the metals, especially the transition metals, are likely to form complexes.
In these complexes, transition metals form coordinate covalent bonds, a kind of Lewis acid-base interaction in which both of the electrons in the bond are contributed by a donor (Lewis base) to an electron acceptor (Lewis acid). The Lewis acid in...
24.5K
Properties of Transition Metals02:58

Properties of Transition Metals

30.0K
Transition metals are defined as those elements that have partially filled d orbitals. As shown in Figure 1, the d-block elements in groups 3–12 are transition elements. The f-block elements, also called inner transition metals (the lanthanides and actinides), also meet this criterion because the d orbital is partially occupied before the f orbitals.
30.0K

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Ultrasound Velocity Measurement in a Liquid Metal Electrode
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Soft electrodes combining hydrogel and liquid metal.

Tim Shay1, Orlin D Velev, Michael D Dickey

  • 1Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695-7905, USA. odvelev@ncsu.edu mddickey@ncsu.edu.

Soft Matter
|April 20, 2018
PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.

Researchers developed soft, stretchable electrodes by interfacing hydrogels with liquid metal. These novel electrodes offer superior performance for electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring and other bioelectronic applications.

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Area of Science:

  • Materials Science
  • Biomedical Engineering
  • Soft Electronics

Background:

  • Soft and stretchable materials are crucial for soft robotics, human-machine interfaces, and stretchable electronics.
  • Hydrogels are ideal due to their softness, tunability, biocompatibility, and ionic conductivity, finding use in skin-mountable sensors like electrocardiogram (ECG) electrodes.
  • Current devices often use rigid metallic electrodes, limiting overall softness and deformability.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To investigate the interfacing of hydrogels with liquid metal (eutectic gallium indium, EGaIn) electrodes.
  • To create completely soft and deformable electrodes with low resistance for bioelectronic applications.
  • To evaluate the performance of these novel electrodes for electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring.

Main Methods:

  • Fabrication of soft, deformable electrodes by interfacing hydrogels with eutectic gallium indium (EGaIn) liquid metal.
  • Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy to measure impedance at the hydrogel-EGaIn interface at biomedically relevant frequencies (1-50 Hz).
  • Modification of hydrogel properties (acidity/basicity, ionic strength) to reduce interfacial impedance.

Main Results:

  • Successfully created soft, deformable electrodes with low resistance traces through the hydrogel without altering mechanical properties.
  • Identified capacitive effects at the hydrogel-EGaIn interface as the dominant impedance source at low frequencies.
  • Demonstrated that acidic/basic hydrogels and increased ionic strength significantly reduce impedance.
  • Achieved signal-to-noise ratios exceeding those of commercial ECG electrodes.

Conclusions:

  • Interfacing liquid metal conductors with hydrogels offers a viable strategy for creating advanced soft electrodes.
  • These novel electrodes show great potential for bioelectronic applications, e-skins, and soft robotics.
  • The ability to tune hydrogel softness without compromising electrical properties enables truly soft electronic devices.