Scientists make new high-tech liquid materials

Scientists at The Australian National University (ANU) have controlled wave-generated currents to make previously unimaginable liquid materials for new technological innovations, including techniques to manipulate micro-organisms.

The new kind of dynamic material could be revolutionary, similar to other materials created in recent decades that have been used for invisibility cloaking, superlenses and high-efficiency antennae. Currents made a liquid behave like materials with regular structures such as crystals.

The flow patterns can be changed at will, so the liquid-based materials are more dynamic and flexible than solid materials. The team observed the flow patterns in a tank of water by generating a wave pattern with two oscillators and tracking fluid particles. They also modelled the flow with computer simulations and theoretical calculations.

Read more at Phys.org

Image Credit: Stuart Hay, ANU

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