Gallium Induced Structural Failure of an Aluminum Sheet

In this video we cause an aluminum sheet to fail structurally using gallium metal. For this experiment a 1mm thick aluminum sheet was used. Simply score/scratch the surface and apply molten gallium. The sheet must be kept warm while the gallium diffuses in so it should be kept in a warm room. Otherwise the gallium will freeze and the diffusion stops. What's happening is the gallium is dissolving some of the aluminum as well as diffusing between the grain boundaries of the aluminum microcrystals and disr