Researchers' Metallic Glue May Stick it to Soldering and Welding

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Perhaps no startup was launched for a more intriguing reason than that of Northeastern’s Hanchen Huang. From the company website:

Those “things” are every­thing from a computer’s central processing unit and a printed circuit board to the glass and metal filament in a light bulb. The “way” of attaching them is, astonishingly, a glue made out of metal that sets at room temperature and requires very little pressure to seal. “It’s like welding or soldering but without the heat,” says Huang, who is professor and chair in the Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering.

In a new paper, published in the January issue of Advanced Mate­rials & Processes, Huang and colleagues, including Northeastern doctoral student Paul Elliott, describe their latest advances in the glue’s development. Our curiosity was piqued: Soldering with no heat? We asked Huang to elaborate.

On new devel­op­ments in the com­po­si­tion of the metallic glue:

“Both ‘metal’ and ‘glue’ are familiar terms to most people, but their combination is new and made pos­sible by unique properties of metallic nanorods—infinitesimally small rods with metal cores that we have coated with the element indium on one side and galium on the other. These coated rods are arranged along a substrate like angled teeth on a comb: There is a bottom ‘comb’ and a top ‘comb.’ We then interlace the ‘teeth.’ When indium and galium touch each other, they form a liquid. The metal core of the rods acts to turn that liquid into a solid. The resulting glue provides the strength and thermal/​electrical conductance of a metal bond. We recently received a new provisional patent for this development through Northeastern University.”

a) Coated rods are arranged along a substrate, like angled teeth on a comb. b) The teeth are then inter­laced. c) When indium and galium come into contact, they form a liquid. d) The metal core of the rods turns that liquid into a solid. The resulting glue provides the strength and thermal/​electrical con­duc­tance of a metal bond. From “Advanced Materials & Processes,” January 2016

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