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Category: Not Really a Molecule
Posted on: May 10, 2007 7:31 PM, by Molecule of the Day
Galinstan is an alloy of gallium, indium, and tin (the Latin is stannum). It's (relatively) nontoxic and liquid at room temperature. For this reason, it's used as a mercury replacement in some applications (you can find galinstan thermometers, for example).
Unfortunately, galinstan isn't quite as cool as mercury - mercury tends to bead, while galinstan "wets" things (coats them). This makes it a mess to handle and not useful to many of the applications mercury is best at.
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Comments
Maybe not so useful, but replace the gallium with bismuth and you get a low melting point solid that has been used in such fun applications as a gag spoon that melts when you stir your coffee.
Posted by: alex | May 11, 2007 12:31 AM