Affiliations: [a] Queen Mary School, Nanchang University, Nanchang, China | [b] Department of Radiology, Fuwai Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, China | [c] School of Engineering Medicine, Beihang University, Beijing, China | [d] Key Laboratory of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Correspondence:
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Corresponding authors: Lei Sheng, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China. E-mail: shenglei@mail.ipc.ac.cn. Fangxing Hou, Queen Mary School, Nanchang University, China. E-mail: houfangxing@email.ncu.edu.cn
Note: [†] Fangxing Hou and Jie Zhang contributed equally to this work.
Abstract: BACKGROUND:With inherent flexibility, high electroconductivity, excellent thermal conductivity, easy printability and biosafety, Ga-based functional liquid metals (LMs) have been extensively evaluated for biomedical applications. When implanted in the biological environment, the safety of the LMs is a major concern for future application. METHODS:In this study, we conducted several biocompatibility assessments through immersion experiments, in vitro cytotoxicity experiments and in vivo embedding experiments. RESULTS:The results showed that both the Al-assisted self-driven LM and the LM per se own good biocompatibility and retrievable properties when contacted with living organisms for a relatively long period of time. CONCLUSION:This study provides preliminary evidence about the biocompatibility of the functional LM materials, such as LM-based soft machine, which would promote and inspire other research to address other tough biomedical issues.
