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Yang et al. Soft Sci 2024;4:9 Soft Science
DOI: 10.20517/ss.2023.43

Review Article Open Access

Liquid metals enabled advanced cryobiology:

development and perspectives

Fan Yang 1,2,3,# , Chennan Lu 1,2,3,# , Wei Rao 1,2,3,*
1
Key Laboratory of Cryogenics Science and Technology, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Beijing 100190, China.
2
Beijing Key Lab of CryoBiomedical Engineering and Key Lab of Cryogenics, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Beijing
100190, China.
3
School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China.
#
Authors contributed equally.
* Correspondence to: Prof. Wei Rao, Key Laboratory of Cryogenics Science and Technology, Technical Institute of Physics and
Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.29 Zhongguancun East Road, Beijing 100190, China. E-mail: weirao@mail.ipc.ac.cn
How to cite this article: Yang F, Lu C, Rao W. Liquid metals enabled advanced cryobiology: development and perspectives. Soft
Sci 2024;4:9. https://dx.doi.org/10.20517/ss.2023.43

Received: 3 Sep 2023 First Decision: 20 Oct 2023 Revised: 9 Nov 2023 Accepted: 27 Nov 2023 Published: 17 Jan 2024

Academic Editor: Zhifeng Ren Copy Editor: Pei-Yun Wang Production Editor: Pei-Yun Wang

Abstract
Cryosurgery and cryopreservation, as two important categories in cryobiology, have been impeded by the poor
thermal conductivity of biological tissues or specimens. To improve this, diverse adjuvants, e.g., carbon-based
materials, metallic nanoparticles, metallic oxide nanoparticles, etc., have been exploited to improve the heat
transfer in heat-targeted regions to increase the tumor elimination efficiency as well as the post-thaw viability of
cryopreserved specimens. Nevertheless, these materials suffer poor thermal conductivities, controversial biosafety
problems, and high expense. Gallium and its alloys, as a class of room-temperature liquid metals (LMs), have been
widely studied in the past decade for their low melting point, minor toxicity, outstanding transformability, and
conductivity. Integrated with these superior properties, they have been widely applied in multiple fields, such as
thermal management, flexible electronics, and soft robotics. Recently, our laboratory has been devoted to fusing
LMs with cryobiology and has made a series of progress. In this article, we will first briefly introduce preparation
pathways to LM-based functional nanomaterials and composites. Then, how these materials realize improvement
in biological heat transfer will be presented, followed by a discussion about the biosafety of these materials, which
is an essential concern for the cryobiological field. Recent studies employing LMs in advanced cryosurgery and
cryopreservation will also be highlighted. The present challenges and prospects of LMs towards further
development in cryobiology will be put forward to point out the possible research direction.

Keywords: Liquid metal, cryobiology, cryosurgery, cryopreservation, nanomaterials, biomaterials

© The Author(s) 2024. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
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