Metal aesthetics of metallic jewelry. Some metals have specialized uses; mercury is a liquid at room temperature and is used in switches to complete a circuit when it flows over the switch contacts. Radioactive metals such as uranium and plutonium are used in nuclear power plants to produce energy via nuclear fission. Shape memory alloys are used for applications such as pipes, fasteners and vascular stents. Metals can be doped with foreign molecules—organic, inorganic, biological and polymers. This doping entails the metal with new properties that are induced by the guest molecules. Applications in catalysis, medicine, electrochemical cells, corrosion and more
Liquid metal ion source allowed to flow to the apex of a sharp needle. Most focused ion beam instruments use a liquid-metal ion sources (LMIS) often with gallium. In a gallium LMIS, gallium metal is placed in contact with a tungsten needle and heated gallium wets the tungsten and flows to the tip of the needle where the opposing forces of surface tension and electric field produce the cusp shaped Taylor cone. The tip radius of this cone is ~2 nm. The electric field at this small tip is typically greater than 1 x 10 V/cm and causes ionization and field emission of the