How To Make Galinstan

less than 1m read

·Nov 10, 2024

Let's make some Gallon Stan. Unlike Mercury, Gallon Stan is not toxic, and it's a liquid at room temperature. Unlike Gallium, which is solid up until about 30 Celsius, you have to hold this for a while before it starts getting drippy. No, no, no, you deserve a metal that is almost always wet.

I'm going to need this magnifying sheet. It's a bit floppy, but I can just whip out my tools and build a sturdy frame. The lens can focus the sun's energy enough to easily melt 10. That's great because, by weight, Gallon Stan is 10% tin, 20% indium— the only element you can safely chew like bubblegum— and 70% gallium.

To speed things up, I used my lens to melt the metals down. They began to amalgamate; their respective atoms all get in each other's way, frustrating crystallization. So instead of melting at 232, 156, or 30, Gallon Stan melts at just 11.

I froze some Gallium and some Gallon Stan in my freezer, and watch this! After just a few minutes, the Gallium was still solid, but the Gallon Stan was a nice shiny mirror soup.

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How To Make Galinstan

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