Liquid marbles

Liquid marbles are non-stick droplets (normally aqueous) wrapped by micro- or nano-metrically scaled hydrophobic, colloidal particles (Teflon, polyethylene, lycopodium powder, carbon black, etc.

[6] Liquid marbles demonstrate a potential as micro-reactors, micro-containers for growing micro-organisms and cells, micro-fluidics devices, and have even been used in unconventional computing.

[20][21][22] Until recently, Liu et al. has filled this void by proposing a new method to control coalescence cascade by using nanostructured coating at the liquid-liquid interface, —the interfacial liquid marbles.

The interfacial water marble can completely resist coalescence cascade and exist nearly permanently at the hexane/water interface, providing that the hexane phase is not depleted by vaporization.

Due to their uniqueness in both form and behavior, the interfacial water marbles are speculated to have remarkable applications in microfluidics, microreactors and mass-transport.

20 μL liquid marble coated with the Teflon powder
Figure 1. A liquid marble sitting on the glass slide.
Figure 2. An interfacial water marble sitting on the hexane-water interface.