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Spray printing and encapsulated liquid metal as a highly reflective metallic paint for packing products

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Abstract

In this strategy, liquid metal (LM) with a shiny metallic luster and an excellent optical property, was introduced as a novel metallic paint and coating to packing products and achieved decorative effects. We report a straightforward method via spray printing to fabricate a consecutive ultra-thin LM film on various product substrates. Then, the flexible LM film was coated with a transparent varnish layer, which was rather convenient for the LM paint to be storing, using and transporting. The thicknesses (25 µm) and the shapes of LM paint were well controlled. The flop index (FI=105), and reflectance (R=88.8%) data of the LM metallic paint were characterized. The results indicated that the LM metallic paint could provide a sparkling appearance and an abounding glossy. The deoxidized LM has a pronounced positive influence on the surface roughness, appearance, reflectance, and metallic texture. The LM metallic paint was highly desirable for potential applications in automotive enamel, motorcycle, toy and high-quality industrial coatings in the near future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Shu-Ting Liang, Hong-Zhang Wang & Jing Liu

  2. College of Materials and Chemical Engineering, Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences, Chongqing, 402160, China

    Shu-Ting Liang

  3. Beijing Key Lab of CryoBiomedical Engineering and Key Lab of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Jing Liu

Authors
  1. Shu-Ting Liang
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  2. Hong-Zhang Wang
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  3. Jing Liu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jing Liu.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 91748206), the Foundation for High-level Talents of Chongqing University of Art and Sciences (Grant No. R2018SCH02), the Major Cultivation Program of Chongqing University of Arts and Sciences (Grant No. P2018CH10), and the Chongqing University New Energy Storage Device and Application Engineering Research Center Open Project (Grant No. KF20180103).

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Liang, ST., Wang, HZ. & Liu, J. Spray printing and encapsulated liquid metal as a highly reflective metallic paint for packing products. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 62, 1577–1584 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-019-9513-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-019-9513-5

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