Noninvasive refilling of liquid marbles with water for microfluidic applications

Keeping your marbles

28 November 2022

Scientists have devised a straightforward way to prevent small liquid droplets, which are promising for use as miniature chemical reactors, from evaporating away.

Known as liquid marbles, liquid droplets coated with particles that repel water or oil are attracting interest for use as miniature containers for performing chemical reactions in. For example, they are useful for culturing cells and performing DNA-amplification methods such as polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

However, liquid marbles gradually evaporate over time, which causes them to buckle and eventually collapse, spilling their contents.

Now, six researchers from Griffith University in Australia have demonstrated a simple, non-invasive technique for refilling liquid marbles.

Their method induces moisture in the air to condense on liquid marbles through the careful control of the marbles’ environment. This condensed water then replenishes the water in the liquid marbles.

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References

1. Applied Physics Letters 120, 064102 (2022). doi: 10.1063/5.0074887