The moment you hold the gallium in your hand, it becomes slippery as if it were any liquid and slips through your fingers. It leaves only a sticky feeling and small stains behind.
So how can it be explained that while gallium has the power to almost destroy many substances, it does not harm the human body?
Here we see that a liquid gallium is deposited on the computer. Molten gallium shatters the computer after a certain period of time.
Gallium, which could disintegrate the computer in the previous video, does not harm the hand in this case.
So how does this situation occur?
In fact, the reason why gallium causes metals such as aluminum and steel to melt is due to its chemical reaction with these metals. Just as water causes iron to rust but does not harm our hands, a more accelerated version of a similar situation applies to the interaction of these elements (gallium, aluminum).
When this element combines with aluminum, it forms an alloy called amalgam. This alloy seeps into the atomic crystal structure of aluminum and dissolves it, making it brittle. Thus, solid aluminum can easily break down when combined with gallium, and gallium causes structural damage to the substance it interacts with.
The surprising thing is that gallium requires very little intervention to achieve this. Even placing a very small amount of gallium on an aluminum and steel material is sufficient for the alloy to form.
Silver-coloured gallium has a very low melting point of 29.4℃. It alloys easily with most metals and can be used as a component even in low melting point alloys.
This element melts and becomes liquid quite easily, but very high temperatures are required for it to boil. It expands when frozen and is only one of the few substances that can do this.
In addition, the alloy obtained by combining metals such as gold, nickel and copper with gallium is seen to harden at oral temperature, and this alloy is used as a filling material in dentistry.
Playing with or handling gallium, which is a 100% metal, does not pose any danger. In addition, the toxicity of the compounds contained in this element is quite mild, but of course they should not be inhaled or swallowed.
In summary, the fact that gallium becomes liquid in our hands but damages different metals is the result of the chemical reaction it enters into with these metals. For example, when we come into contact with water and salt separately, nothing happens, but when these two compounds come together, the salt dissolves in the water.
Well, did gallium remind you of the Terminator 2 movie?
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