In his laboratory at North Carolina State University, Michael Dickey holds a small sample of what looks like mercury but behaves with an almost otherworldly intelligence.
As he applies a tiny electrical charge, the silvery liquid metal spreads like a pancake, then snaps back into a perfect sphere when the voltage reverses.
It's a real-world demonstration of what science fiction promised decades ago.
"It's one of the most interesting elements on the periodic table, and nobody's ever pushed back on that," Dickey told Cowboy State Daily, comparing the critical element gallium to the imaginary sci-fi metal that formed the shape-shifting T-1000 terminator in the 1991 film "Terminator 2."
If destroyed, the T-1000 could, like a liquid, reconstitute itself with terrifying effect thanks to a fictional “mimetic polyalloy.”
Gallium is not mimetic, meaning it can’t shapeshift like the T-1000 terminator. But its self-healing powers make it clear why Dickey references “Terminator 2” when trying to explain why he spends so much time studying gallium.
“It’s just got a bunch of really unique properties,” said Dickey, who is a professor in the university's department of chemical and biomolecular engineering, and has spent nearly two decades pioneering research into liquid gallium alloys.
His work focuses on soft materials with applications in stretchable electronics, liquid metal antennas and self-healing wires.
What makes gallium special, he explained, is that "it's a metal that has metal-like properties in terms of its electrical conductivity and thermal conductivity, but yet it's a liquid and the viscosity is very similar to water."
This unique combination is driving growing demand for gallium across multiple industries, from semiconductors to advanced electronics.
And Wyoming may be positioned to become a key domestic source of this critical material, as federal agencies recently announced a renewed push to reduce America's dependence on Chinese supply chains.
Unsnipped Wire
In his lab, Dickey created wires that can be cut completely in half and then reconnect themselves, restoring electrical function.
"We've made liquid metal wires and put them into a special casing material, like a polymer that can go back together," he explained. "So that's really kind of cool."
Equally remarkable are the fabrics his team developed.
"You cut them with scissors, you can literally cut them. And the process of cutting ends up creating a new circuit so that you can't really destroy it," Dickey said, explaining how the gallium material essentially rewires itself.
The shearing action of the scissors causes tiny liquid metal particles to merge together, creating new electrical pathways wherever the fabric is cut.
This self-healing property stems from gallium's unique oxide layer.
"It's just like a shell that forms on the surface of the metal, and that allows us to shape the metal into all these things that I had mentioned, like antennas, wires, circuits," Dickey said. "It's a bit like a water bed where you've got the shell that holds the liquid together."
Beyond self-healing applications, gallium is finding critical uses in heat management for high-performance computing.
"AI-based computers that generate a lot of heat require a lot of energy. And also just generally in computer chips, as you make them smaller and more and more transistors in a smaller area, they generate a lot of heat," Dickey said. "And liquid metals are the best material that's out there in terms of being able to remove the heat from those chips."
The material is already used commercially in Sony PlayStation consoles and is being explored by chip giant Nvidia for artificial intelligence applications.
Gallium Source
Wyoming may soon join the gallium supply chain through projects like Ramaco's Brook Mine near Ranchester.
According to the company's preliminary economic assessment released in July, the mine shows potential for gallium production alongside some in-demand critical metals.
The assessment noted that "high-value minerals such as scandium, gallium, and germanium in the Brook Mine deposit are crucial to the project's success, potentially accounting for up to 82% of the revenue."
The timing aligns with a major federal push to develop domestic critical mineral sources.
In August, the Department of Energy announced nearly $1 billion to advance mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies across critical mineral supply chains.
The money specifically targets "processes to refine and alloy gallium, gallium nitride, germanium, and silicon carbide for use in semiconductors."
David Hammond, a Colorado-based mineral economist and consultant, described the federal approach as aggressive.
"This is a cannon blast of taxpayer money at the problem," Hammond told Cowboy State Daily. "My impression is that the DOE strategy to address the real obstacles is to dump a supertanker load of cash into the fan and hope at least one thing sticks."
Despite his skepticism about some aspects of the federal strategy, Hammond sees particular promise in supporting this kind of critical metals development.
"I have long felt there are some real possibilities domestically and with our allies, to increase recovery of low volume mini and micro metals, such as gallium," he said.
Chinese Restrictions
The urgency behind these initiatives stems partly from China's recent export restrictions on gallium and other critical materials.
Leslie Hayward, senior vice president of public affairs with Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE), pointed to the strategic importance of gallium and the DOE’s emphasis on this specific critical metal.
"It is a huge opportunity for miners in Wyoming to receive federal money to support some of these projects in a very challenging environment for critical minerals producers in the West,” she said.
Wyoming institutions are positioning themselves to compete for these federal dollars.
Tyler C. Brown, a program manager with the University of Wyoming's Center for Economic Geology Research, told Cowboy State Daily, "Our group, together with colleagues across the School of Energy Resources and other colleges at UW, will be partnering with universities, national labs, and industry stakeholders on proposals for the competitive awards" now offered by the DOE.
For Dickey, the growing recognition of gallium's potential validates decades of research into what many initially dismissed as an exotic curiosity.
"When I started working on this material almost 20 years ago, people would say, ‘Oh, that's really cool, but it's a liquid metal,’ as if that was a negative thing," he said.
With gallium now finding applications from gaming consoles to defense systems, the liquid metal that once seemed like science fiction is becoming the foundation for very real technological advances.
These include shapeshifting liquid antennas that change form to increase their sensitivity.
“You can actually tune it based on changing the shape,” said Dickey. “And you can do so in ways that are really unique.”
David Madison can be reached at david@cowboystatedaily.com.
