High-speed continuous fluids transport within enclosed pipelines is a core driving technology in biomedicine, chemical analysis, and soft robotics. However, conventional pumping technologies rely on bulky compressors that suffer from excessive power consumption (>3 × 10 7 W), high noise (>60 dB), and considerable weight (>2 kg). Although emerging liquid metal (LM)-based micropumps offer silent and portable alternatives, the inherent clogging of chambers by deformed LM restricts operation to the high frequency (>100 Hz) and low duty cycle (<50%) of the electrical signal, inevitably leading to flow rate decay (<5000 μL min –1 ). Herein, we introduce a magnetic LM-based electro-magnetic fluid pump (mEMFP) that synergizes electric and magnetic fields for efficient liquid transport. By integrating core–shell Fe@PDA@Ag magnetic particles into LM, we generate magnetically responsive LM droplets (MLM) that can be precisely anchored within the pump chamber, thereby eliminating clogging. This design enables the operating frequency to be reduced to 10 Hz and the duty cycle to be increased to 80%, extending the effective actuation duration. Under 12 V square wave signal (12 V p-p, 6 V DC offset), mEMFP equipped with a single MLM droplet achieves a flow rate of 1.59 × 10 4 μL min –1, while four serially integrated MLMs deliver 2.20 × 10 4 μL min –1 with power consumption below 20 mW. What’s more, the mEMFP is successfully demonstrated in versatile applications including multifunctional liquid transport, phase-change valving, and personalized thermal management, offering a feasible pathway toward high-performance microfluidic systems.
Zhao et al. (Thu,) studied this question.