A promising new class of plasticine: Metallic plasticine

Soft, malleable, and non-dry on exposure in air are the typical features for plain plasticine, which lead plasticine to be widely used in many industrial fields and our daily life. As a kind of clay, poorly electric conductivity and thermal conductivity of plain plasticine seriously limit its applications. Therefore, synthesizing a kind of plasticine having metallic bond is of importance for extending its applications in some special cases, such as thermal-cooling medium, anti-static electricity, electromagnetic shielding, etc. Here, we report a novel GaInSnCdZn2 alloy, which exhibits similar behavior as compared to those of plasticine at near room temperature (30-40 °C), and a good electrical conductivity due to its nature of metal. This new GaInSnCdZn2 alloy can be called as metallic plasticine that contains the near-eutectic structure with low melting point and the other relatively high melting point phases. In this metallic plasticine, the near-eutectic structure with low melting point plays the same role as the oily ingredient in plain plasticine, dominating the plastic deformation, while the other relatively high melting point phases act as the stuffing like the CaCO3 in plain plasticine. The creation of metallic plasticine offers a general strategy for designing/preparing a new class of plasticine which possesses both the nature of metal and plasticine.