Oxide-mediated mechanisms of gallium foam generation and stabilization during shear mixing in air

Abstract

Foaming of gallium-based liquid metals improves their processability and—seemingly in contrast to processing of other metal foams—can be achieved through shear-mixing in air without addition of solid microparticles. Resolving this discrepancy, systematic processing–structure–property characterization demonstrates that many crumpled oxide particles are generated prior to air bubble accumulation.