IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-66249-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Observing growth of metallic crystals inside liquid metal solvents

Author

Listed:
  • Moonika S. Widjajana

    (The University of Sydney, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

  • Matthew Foley

    (The University of Sydney, Sydney Microscopy & Microanalysis)

  • Jiewei Zheng

    (RMIT University, School of Science)

  • Francois-Marie Allioux

    (The University of Sydney, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
    University of New South Wales (UNSW), School of Chemical Engineering)

  • Shuhada A. Idrus-Saidi

    (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Centre of Lipids Engineering and Applied Research (CLEAR), Ibnu Sina Institute for Scientific and Industrial Research (ISI-SIR)
    Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Faculty of Chemical and Energy Engineering)

  • Mohamed Kilani

    (University of New South Wales (UNSW), School of Chemical Engineering)

  • Charlie Ruffman

    (University of Auckland, MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Department of Physics
    Victoria University of Wellington, School of Physical and Chemical Sciences)

  • Nicola Gaston

    (University of Auckland, MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Department of Physics)

  • Zengxia Pei

    (The University of Sydney, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

  • Pramod Koshy

    (University of New South Wales (UNSW), School of Materials Science and Engineering)

  • Michelle J. S. Spencer

    (RMIT University, School of Science)

  • Shih-Hao Chiu

    (The University of Sydney, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

  • Nur-Adania Nor-Azman

    (The University of Sydney, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering)

  • Richard B. Kaner

    (University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Department of Materials Science and Engineering, and California NanoSystems Institute
    University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry)

  • Torben Daeneke

    (RMIT University, School of Engineering)

  • Jianbo Tang

    (University of New South Wales (UNSW), School of Chemical Engineering
    Westlake University, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, School of Engineering and Research Center for Industries of the Future)

  • Minkyung Kang

    (The University of Sydney, School of Chemistry)

  • Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh

    (The University of Sydney, School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
    University of New South Wales (UNSW), School of Chemical Engineering)

Abstract

Liquid metals are promising unconventional solvents for dissolving metals and growing their crystals. However, how the crystals grow within these metallic solvents cannot be observed easily due to the opacity of liquid metals. Using X-ray micro-computed tomography, the three-dimensional formations of crystals inside liquid metal solvents, under different conditions, are presented. In this work, we explore the use of different liquid metals solvents for growing metallic crystals, while imaging the crystals shape and sizes inside liquid metals. We use gallium-based solvents and platinum, as the solutes and demonstrate the use of liquid metals for forming metallic crystals through modulating environmental boundary effects, controlled cooling rates, and solvent selection. It is observed that the cooling rate and composition of the reaction media will influence crystals morphologies and intermetallic phases. As a proof-of-concept, we perform hydrogen evolution reaction using metallic crystals extracted from the solvents, showcasing the potential of liquid metal-based synthesis in tailoring metallic crystals properties for enhancing catalytic activity demonstrating a strategy for engineering metallic crystals in liquid metal solvents.

Suggested Citation

  • Moonika S. Widjajana & Matthew Foley & Jiewei Zheng & Francois-Marie Allioux & Shuhada A. Idrus-Saidi & Mohamed Kilani & Charlie Ruffman & Nicola Gaston & Zengxia Pei & Pramod Koshy & Michelle J. S. S, 2025. "Observing growth of metallic crystals inside liquid metal solvents," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-66249-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-66249-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-66249-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-66249-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-66249-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.