Water droplets suspended in oil can be shaped into ellipsoids, tubes or even fish-like forms (pictured). Thomas Russell at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and his team added chemically modified polymers and polystyrene nanoparticles to water droplets in oil.
These components attract each other and crowd together across the oil–water interface. Applying an electric field distorts the droplet, allowing more particles to move in. When the field is turned off, the crowded particles jam together and keep the droplet in its altered shape.
The droplets, which remain stable for up to one month, might be useful for encapsulating chemicals or delivering drugs, the authors say.
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Water sculptures crafted in oil. Nature 502, 596 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/502596c
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/502596c
