Data from: Ionic imbalance induced self-propulsion of liquid metals

This dataset supports the findings in the linked paper. Components with self-propelling abilities are important building blocks of small autonomous systems and the characteristics of liquid metals are capable of fulfilling self-propulsion criteria. To date, there has been no exploration regarding the effect of electrolyte ionic content surrounding a liquid metal for symmetry breaking that generates motion. Here we show the controlled actuation of liquid metal droplets using only the ionic properties of the aqueous electrolyte. We demonstrate that pH or ionic concentration gradients across a liquid metal droplet induce both deformation and surface Marangoni flow. We show that the Lippmann dominated deformation results in maximum velocity for the self-propulsion of liquid metal droplets and illustrate several key applications, which take advantage of such electrolyte-induced motion. With this finding, it is possible to conceive the propulsion of small entities that are constructed and controlled entirely with fluids, progressing towards more advanced soft systems.本数据集为关联论文中的研究结论提供支撑。具备自驱动（self-propelling）能力的组件是小型自主系统的重要构建单元，而液态金属（liquid metals）的特性可满足自驱动的相关要求。截至目前，尚未有研究探讨液态金属周围电解质（electrolyte）离子含量对产生运动的对称性破缺（symmetry breaking）的影响。本研究展示了仅通过水性电解质（aqueous electrolyte）的离子特性实现液态金属液滴的可控驱动。研究证实，液态金属液滴两侧的pH值或离子浓度梯度可同时引发液滴变形与表面马兰戈尼流（Marangoni flow）。本研究表明，由李普曼（Lippmann）效应主导的变形可使液态金属液滴的自驱动达到最大速度，并展示了数项依托此类电解质诱导运动的关键应用场景。依托该研究发现，可实现对完全以流体构建并控制的小型单元的推进构想，进而向更先进的软系统（soft systems）迈进。