Preprogramming Floating Time of Liquid Marble

Non-sticking droplets wrapped with fine hydrophobic particles, namely liquid marbles, can be transported both on solid and water pool without an undesired spill of the inner encapsulated liquid. While the stimuli-responsive release of the inner liquid in the target area is proposed, the time-programmed release is not yet achieved. Herein, the hydrophobicity of nanoclay is modulated via a catalyst-free 1,4-conjugate addition reaction to form liquid marbles. This nanoclay liquid marble is robust and stable in air but collapses on the liquid pool with a specific lifetime. The lifetime of the liquid marble can be modulated over seconds to hours scale depending on the selection of chemically modulated wettability of the nanoclay. The critical mechanism of lifetime modulation is responsible for controlling the coalescence kinetics between the water pool and inner liquid by nanoclays’ high diffusion length and chemically varied water spreading potential. The NC liquid marble's programmable lifetime to ‘time-bomb’ type drug release and cascade chemical reaction is applied—without requiring any external intervention.     

Polyhedral Liquid Marbles

A new type of armored droplet, a so‐called polyhedral liquid marble, is introduced in this work. These armored liquid marbles consist of liquid droplets stabilized by hydrophobic hexagonal plates made of poly(ethylene terephthalate), which adsorb to the liquid–air interface. Depending on the specific combination of plate size and droplet diameter, the plates self‐assemble into highly ordered hexagonally arranged domains. Even tetrahedral‐, pentahedral‐, and cube‐shaped liquid marbles composed of only 4 to 6 plates are demonstrated. During evaporation of the internal liquid, due to the high adsorption energy of the plates at the liquid–air interface, the overall surface area stays constant, resulting in strongly deformed polyhedral liquid marbles. In line with this, highly asymmetric polyhedral liquid marbles and letters are obtained due to the strong interfacial jamming exerted by the rigid hexagonal plates. This is particularly pronounced for larger plate sizes, leading to liquid marbles with unusually sharp edges (for example, rectangular edges). The polyhedral liquid marbles exhibit various stimuli‐responsive behaviors simultaneously being exposed to water, ammonia, or tetrahydrofuran vapors. Air‐driven polyhedral liquid marbles floating on water can reach velocities of several centimeters per second.     

Fabrication of a Superhydrophobic Surface from a Smectic Liquid‐Crystal Defect Array

A novel fabrication method is developed for the preparation of superhydrophobic surfaces. The procedure uses focal conic structures of semi‐fluorinated smectic liquid crystals (LCs) whose periodic toric focal conic domains (TFCDs) are prepared on a surface modified substrate. Reactive ion etching (RIE) on the periodic TFCD surface leads to a superhydrophobic surface with a water contact angle of ～160° and a sliding angle of ～2° for a 10 µL water droplet. The results show that this phenomenon is due to the development of a dual‐scale surface roughness arising from the nanoscale protuberance caused by applying the RIE process to the top of the microscale TFCD arrays. The unique surface behavior is further verified by demonstrating that RIE on a flat lamellar liquid crystal film, in which the director is aligned parallel with surface, results in a relatively low hydrophobicity as compared to when periodic TFCDs are subjected to REI. The observations made in this publication suggest that a new approach exists for selecting potential candidates of superhydrophic surface formation based on spontaneous self‐assembly in smectic liquid‐crystalline materials.     

Electrocontrolled Liquid Marbles for Rapid Miniaturized Organic Reactions

Miniaturized droplet reactors hold great promise for the development of green and sustainable chemistry. However, handling liquids with small volumes, especially viscous ones, in a convenient and loss‐free manner remains a challenge. Here, by electrically controlling the coalescence and mixing of particle‐coated droplets, also known as liquid marbles, an effective microreactor is demonstrated for miniaturized chemical reactions involving viscous reagents. By applying an electric voltage to marbles, the induced electromixing of marble microreactors promotes the reaction rate and the product yield. The advantages of electromixed marble reactors are manifested by a series of chemical reactions between aldehydes and 2‐methylindole in viscous glycerol solution. The electrically‐controlled coalescence and mixing establish liquid marbles as microreactors for rapid, efficient, and miniaturized chemical reactions.     

Jamming Skins that Control System Rigidity from the Surface

Numerous animals adapt their stiffness during natural motions to increase efficiency or environmental adaptability. For example, octopuses stiffen their tentacles to increase efficiency during reaching, and several species adjust their leg stiffness to maintain stability when running across varied terrain. Inspired by nature, variable-stiffness machines can switch between rigid and soft states. However, existing variable-stiffness systems are usually purpose-built for a particular application and lack universal adaptability. Here, reconfigurable stiffness-changing skins that can stretch and fold to create 3D structures or attach to the surface of objects to influence their rigidity are presented. These “jamming skins” employ vacuum-powered jamming of interleaved, discrete planar elements, enabling 2D stretchability of the skin in its soft state. Stretching allows jamming skins to be reversibly shaped into load-bearing, functional tools on-demand. Additionally, they can be attached to host structures with complex curvatures, such as robot arms and portions of the human body, to provide support or create a mold. We also show how multiple skins can work together to modify the workspace of a continuum robot by creating instantaneous joints. Jamming skins thus serve as a reconfigurable approach to creating tools and adapting structural rigidity on-demand.     

Liquid Metal Marbles

Liquid metal marbles that are droplets of liquid metal encapsulated by micro‐ or nanoparticles are introduced. Droplets of galinstan liquid metal are coated with insulators (including Teflon and silica) and semiconductors (including WO₃, TiO_2, MoO₃, In₂O₃ and carbon nanotubes) by rolling over a powder bed and also by submerging in colloidal suspensions. It is shown that these marbles can be split and merged, can be suspended on water, and are even stable when moving under the force of gravity and impacting a flat solid surface. Furthermore, the marble coating can operate as an active electronic junction and the nanomaterial coated liquid metal marble can act as a highly sensitive electrochemical based heavy metal ion sensor. This new element thus represents a significant platform for the advancement of research into soft electronics.     

Robotic Locomotion and Piezo1 Activity Controlled with Novel Liquid Marble-based Soft Actuators

A novel soft actuator is designed, fabricated, and optimized for applied use in soft robotics and biomedical applications. The soft actuator is powered by the expansion and contraction of a graphene-containing and encased liquid marble using the photothermal effect. Unfortunately, conventional liquid marbles are found to be too fragile and prone to cracking and failure for such applications. After experimentation, it is possible to remedy this problem by synthesizing liquid marbles encased with polymeric shells–polymerized in situ–for added mechanical strength and robustness. These marbles are shown to have intrinsic photothermal activity. They are then situated in bimorph-type soft actuators where one side of the actuator has a dramatically different Young's modulus than the other, leading to directional actuation which is successfully demonstrated in multistep walking soft robots. The soft actuators are shown to successfully activate the mechanosensitive Piezo protein in a transfected human cell line with high effectiveness and no toxicity. Overall, the liquid marble-powered soft actuators described here represent a new soft actuation methodology and a novel tool for mechanobiological studies, such as stem cell fate and organoid differentiation.     

Long-Lived Liquid Marbles for Green Applications

Liquid marbles allow for quantities of various liquids to be encapsulated by hydrophobic particles, thus ensuring isolation from the external environment. The unique properties provided by this soft solid has allowed for use in a wide array of different applications. Liquid marbles do however have certain drawbacks, with lifetime and robustness often being limited. Within this review, particle characteristics that impact liquid marble stability are critically discussed, in addition to other factors, such as internal and external environments, that can be engineered to achieve a robust long-lived liquid marble. New emerging applications, which will benefit from this improvement, are explored such as unconventional computing, cell mimicry, and soft lithography. Incorporation of liquid marbles and liquid crystal technologies shows promise in utilizing structural color for optical display applications, and within green and environmental applications, liquid marble technology is increasingly adapted for use in energy conversion, heavy metal recovery, CO₂ capture, and oil removal.     

Control the Entire Journey of Pesticide Application on Superhydrophobic Plant Surface by Dynamic Covalent Trimeric Surfactant Coacervation

Vast wastage of pesticides has caused significant environmental pollution and economic loss, which occurs in any step during the entire process of pesticide application. However, the existing strategies for controlling pesticide losses are step specific. Here, a comprehensive strategy to substantively improve pesticide efficiency on the basis of precise designs from beginning to end is developed. A water-based coacervate with synthesized imine-based dynamic covalent trimeric surfactants to synergistically control encapsulation, deposition, retention, and release of pesticides on water-repellent plants is constructed. The coacervate consists of nanosized networks and abundant tightly bonded water, leading to effective encapsulation of hydrophilic/hydrophobic pesticides. Meanwhile, the network-like microstructure entangles with the micro/nanostructures of superhydrophobic surface, ensuring complete deposition on superhydrophobic plant surface after high-speed impact and inhibition of wind/rainwater erosion. Moreover, the CO₂-induced degradative surfactant coacervate determines the precise pesticide release. The dynamic coacervate as an innovative pesticide formula provides a prospective way for pesticide application, and is expected to promote productive and sustainable agriculture.     

Stimuli‐Responsive Liquid Marbles: Controlling Structure,Shape, Stability,and Motion

“Liquid marbles” are liquid‐in‐gas dispersed systems stabilized by hydrophobic solid particles adsorbed at the gas‐liquid interface. The structure, stability and movement of these liquid marbles can be controlled by external stimuli such as pH, temperature, light, magnetic and electric fields, ultrasonic, mechanical stress and organic solvents. Stimuli‐responsive modes can be categorized into five classes: (i) liquid marbles whose stability can be controlled by adsorption/desorption of solid particles to/from liquid surfaces, (ii) liquid marbles that can open and close their particle‐coated surface by moving particles to and from the gas‐liquid surface, (iii) liquid marbles that can move, (iv) liquid marbles that can change their shape and (v) liquid marbles that can be split. As a result of these stimuli‐responsive characteristics, liquid marbles offer potential in the areas of controlled encapsulation, delivery and release.     

Molecular Engineering of Mesogenic Constituents Within Liquid Crystalline Elastomers to Sharpen Thermotropic Actuation

Liquid crystalline elastomers (LCE) are stimuli-responsive materials with a distinguished mechanical response. LCE have been subject to numerous recent functional examinations in robotics, health sciences, and optics. The liquid crystallinity of the elastomeric polymer networks of LCE are largely derived from liquid crystalline monomer precursors. Recent reports have utilized commercially available liquid crystalline diacrylate monomers in chain extension reactions to prepare LCE. These reactions have been largely based on monomeric precursors originally to enhance the and thermal stability of optical films. Here, it is demonstrated that preparing LCE via a liquid crystalline diacrylate with reduced mesogen–mesogen interaction enhances and sharpens the thermotropic actuation of these materials. Robust composition-response correlations are demonstrated in LCE prepared by three common synthetic methods. The enhanced thermotropic response of LCE prepared from this precursor increases the thermomechanical efficiency by sixfold. Accordingly, this work addresses important limitations in utilizing the thermal response of LCE in robotics, health care, and consumer goods.     

低频液体表面波的激光干涉测量

对于频率为几十赫兹的液体表面声波,提出了一种激光干涉测量方法,并在实验上观察到了反射光所形成的稳定的、清晰的调制干涉图样,干涉图样被限制在一定的空间区域内,其强度分别在两边界位置达到极大,形成了两个极亮点.理论上导出了调制干涉图样光强度、干涉条纹角宽度、干涉区域角宽度与表面声波之间的解析关系,并与实验数据进行了对比.基于这一发现,建立起一种适应测量低频表面声波特性及表面张力的实用方法.     

光控取向弱锚定表面的液晶分子排列

研究了光敏聚酰亚胺ＰＩ（ＢＴＤＡ－ＴＭＭＤＡ）用于液晶取向时的弱锚定边界特性。实验测得了两基板皆为摩擦取向层扭曲向列液晶显示器件（ＤＲ－ＴＮ－ＬＣＤ）及两基板皆为光控取向层的扭曲向列液晶显示器件（ＤＬＰＰ－ＴＮ－ＬＣＤ）的电光特性和时间响应特性曲线。研究了液晶排列的稳定性,讨论了液晶分子在光控取向弱锚定表面上的排列机理。     

A Multiscale Strategy for Constructing Finned Microporous Superhydrophobic Surface for Highly-Efficient Condensation Heat Transfer Enhancement Enabled by Lifespan Regulation of Droplets

Spontaneous droplet jumping on micro-/nano-structured superhydrophobic surfaces has been exploited as an efficient means for enhancing steam condensation heat transfer. However, the good performance of such surfaces quickly decays with raising the degree of subcooling, due to the mismatch between the characteristic length scales and droplet sizes when they grow up. Herein, a novel strategy for multiscale droplet regulation is proposed by combining sub-millimeter fin structure with a hierarchical microporous superhydrophobic surface. A superior condensation heat transfer performance is attained on such hierarchical superhydrophobic finned tube (F-SHB), in comparison to the baseline case of superhydrophobic non-finned (SHB) tube under well-controlled test conditions. Although the droplet jumping is not as vigorous as that on the SHB tube, the finned geometry of the F-SHB tube leads to a condensation heat transfer enhancement even under high degrees of subcooling up to 36 K, because of the accelerated departure of large droplets by imposing Laplace force gradient in the presence of V-shaped sub-millimeter fins. This multiscale enhancement strategy is shown to enable a cascading regulation over the entire lifespan of condensate droplets. The fabrication of F-SHB tubes is facile and easy to be scaled up, showing great potential in practical steam condensation applications.     

液氦薄膜表面电子—涟波子系统的性质

本文研究液氦薄膜表面电子与涟波子弱耦合的性质,采用线性组合算符和微扰法导出电子－涟波子系统的基态能量。当计及电子在反冲效应中发射和吸收不同波矢 的涟波子之间相互作用时,讨论对电子－涟波子系统基态能量的影响。     

Spatial Control of Heterogeneous Nucleation on the Superhydrophobic Nanowire Array

Condensation is a common phenomenon and is widely exploited in power generation and refrigeration devices. Although drop‐wise condensation offers high heat and mass transfer rates, it is extremely difficult to maintain and control. In this study, the ability to spatially control heterogeneous nucleation on a superhydrophobic surface by manipulating the free energy barrier to nucleation through parameterizing regional roughness scale on the Si nanowire array‐coated surface is reported. Water vapor preferentially condenses on the designed microgrooves on the Si nanowire surface and continuous shedding of the drop‐wise condensate is observed on the surface. The nucleation site density can also be manipulated by tailoring the density of the microgroove on the surface. Moreover, the cycle time on the Si nanowire array with microgrooves is approximately ten times smaller than that on a plain Si surface. This suggests that potentially high heat and mass transfer rates can be achieved on the surface. The insight from this study has implications in enhancing energy efficiency in a wide range of thermal energy conversion systems.     

基于填充液晶的金属狭缝阵列结构对光束的调控

利用表面等离子体调控光束传输,在微纳集成光学及光通信领域有广泛应用。提出了一种狭缝中填充液晶的金属微纳阵列结构理论设计。利用表面等离子体传输效应,通过设定狭缝宽度、外加电场改变液晶的方位角控制相位延迟等参数,设计不同新颖效果的金属微纳光学透镜。利用时域有限差分(FDTD)法对三狭缝、六狭缝及五狭缝阵列结构进行数值模拟表明,上述结构分别实现光束偏转、光分束及光聚焦效果。偏转角、分束角及焦点位置随着狭缝宽度及方位角的改变而变化,从而实现对光束的调控作用。设计结构简单,可以通过电子束刻蚀系统等实验设备加工,具有较好的应用前景。