Researchers Create Ultrastretchable Wires Using Liquid Metal

hypnosec writes "By using liquid metal researchers have created wires that can stretch up to eight times their original length while retaining their conduction properties. Scientists over at North Carolina State University made the stretchable wires by filling in a tube made out of an extremely elastic polymer with gallium and an indium liquid metal alloy."

Comments

Re:Are they worried about leaks?

[Anonymous Coward]

metallic gallium is not considered toxic
Wikipedia on Gallium
Pure indium in metal form is considered nontoxic by most sources.
Wikipedia on Indium

Re:Are they worried about leaks?

[mirix]

When they ditched mercury thermometers due to toxicity / envrionmental hazards, the replacement is galinstan - gallium, indium, and tin. So it is considerably less toxic.

Unfortunately it wets to glass, unlike mercury which beads up, and is more expensive.
The way around that is to coat the glass with something - I don't recall what now, but I think it was some gallium compound.

On the more expensive front - I'd think both gallium and indium are a couple orders of magnitude more expensive than copper, so don't count on that going away any time soon. (Not to mention copper itself is 'expensive' [~$5/kg, it varies], and manufacturers are cheaping out on it. 12 AWG booster cables?! What kind of sick joke is that?)