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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Lab. Chip. Technol.
Sec. Micro- and Nano-fluidics
Volume 3 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frlct.2024.1451278
This article is part of the Research Topic Celebrating Excellence in North America: Lab-on-a-Chip Technologies View all 3 articles

Recent Advancements in Liquid Marbles: Fabrication, Control Mechanisms, and Applications

Provisionally accepted
Seyed Hamed Ghavami Seyed Hamed Ghavami Yuxiang Liu Yuxiang Liu *
  • Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Liquid marbles (LMs) are versatile soft matter systems comprising a liquid core encapsulated by a shell of hydrophobic particles. LMs exhibit non-wetting properties and hence have enhanced mobility compared with droplets on a solid substrate. Recent advances have expanded their fabrication methods, material choices, and applications, particularly in microfluidics. This mini-review highlights the progress in LM research over the past two years, focusing on novel fabrication techniques, unique materials, multi-physical control schemes, and emerging applications including solar energy harvesting, cell culture, controlled substance delivery, gas sensing, and pollutant decontamination. We provide opinions on the unaddressed needs in LM research and on the trend of LM developments, specifically for the applications of LMs in lab-on-a-chip applications.

    Keywords: liquid marbles, Hydrophobic Particles shell, Microfluidics, nonwetting phenomena, Solar energy harvesting, Microbioreactor

    Received: 18 Jun 2024; Accepted: 27 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Ghavami and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yuxiang Liu, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.