How do liquid metal snowflakes grow?
Electrochemical oxidation shapes liquid gallium–indium metal into fractal shapes
Drops of liquid metal can be grown into snowflake shapes, researchers have discovered. When a team of scientists from the North Carolina State University, US, tried to use a droplet of liquid gallium–indium as an electrode in a electrochemical cell, they observed something odd: within a few seconds, the metal starts to spread out into a snowflake-like shape. An unusual behaviour for a liquid that has the largest surface tension of any fluid and is therefore rarely inclined to change its shape.