Viscoelastic properties of gallium-indium alloy

The viscoelastic properties of a gallium-indium alloy in the pre-yield region make it easier to understand their characteristics, particularly the varying degrees of stiffness and damping properties. These viscoelastic properties were measured with a strain-controlled rheometer, where both strain amplitude sweep mode and the angular frequency sweep mode were conducted. Three groups of experiments were carried out in the strain amplitude sweep mode. In the angular frequency sweep mode, the storage modulus G′ and the loss modulus G″ were investigated at the linear region, the critical region, and the non-linear region. Experimental results indicate that the gallium-indium alloy exhibited similar viscoelastic properties. The linear viscoelastic region takes place when the strain amplitude is less than the critical strain amplitude of 1 %. At the critical regime, the gallium-indium alloy has the strongest relative elasticity. These results are helpful to understand the intrinsic properties of gallium-indium alloys and find their application in flexible circuits, soft robotics, self-healing, and mechanical shock absorption.