Liquid metal material genome: Initiation of a new research track towards discovery of advanced energy materials

Abstract

As the basis of modern industry, the roles materials play are becoming increasingly vital in this day and age. With many superior physical properties over conventional fluids, the low melting point liquid metal material, especially room-temperature liquid metal, is recently found to be uniquely useful in a wide variety of emerging areas from energy, electronics to medical sciences. However, with the coming enormous utilization of such materials, serious issues also arise which urgently need to be addressed. A biggest concern to impede the large scale application of room-temperature liquid metal technologies is that there is currently a strong shortage of the materials and species available to meet the tough requirements such as cost, melting point, electrical and thermal conductivity, etc. Inspired by the Material Genome Initiative as issued in 2011 by the United States of America, a more specific and focused project initiative was proposed in this paper—the liquid metal material genome aimed to discover advanced new functional alloys with low melting point so as to fulfill various increasing needs. The basic schemes and road map for this new research program, which is expected to have a worldwide significance, were outlined. The theoretical strategies and experimental methods in the research and development of liquid metal material genome were introduced. Particularly, the calculation of phase diagram (CALPHAD) approach as a highly effective way for material design was discussed. Further, the first-principles (FP) calculation was suggested to combine with the statistical thermodynamics to calculate the thermodynamic functions so as to enrich the CALPHAD database of liquid metals. When the experimental data are too scarce to perform a regular treatment, the combination of FP calculation, cluster variation method (CVM) or molecular dynamics (MD), and CALPHAD, referred to as the mixed FP-CVM-CALPHAD method can be a promising way to solve the problem. Except for the theoretical strategies, several parallel processing experimental methods were also analyzed, which can help improve the efficiency of finding new liquid metal materials and reducing the cost. The liquid metal material genome proposal as initiated in this paper will accelerate the process of finding and utilization of new functional materials.

Keywords

liquid metal material genome / energy material / material discovery / advanced material / room-temperature liquid alloy / thermodynamics / phase diagram

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Acknowledgments

This work is partially supported by the Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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