Nano-sculptures for longer-lasting battery electrodes

Liquid metals can be fairly good atom thieves. Scientists use a liquid metal technique to selectively remove elements from a block of well-mixed metals and create intricate structures. However, researchers didn't know how the technique worked. Now, scientists know that due to the preferential mixing of the soon-to-be-removed element with the liquid metal, the uniform solid alloy is transformed into two phases in a manner that is similar to what is seen in cooling a hot mixture of oil and water.