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tliltocatltoday at 6:13 PM0 repliesview on HN

One thing about gallium/galinstan - it would actually make a descent high vacuum seal as it has lowest vapor pressure of all elements - so it doesn't evaporate. The problem is that it sticks to just about everything that isn't PE/PTFE. Galinstan thermometers use some proprietary coating to make glass repel it.

I was once entertaining the idea of using gallium for an electrostatically or MHD boosted Sprengel pump, but figured out sticking would make it infeasible. And now it's unobitanium too.