Liquid marbles are gaining increased attention because of their added advantages such as low evaporation rates, less friction, and ease of manipulation over the pristine liquid drop. Their functionalities could be further enhanced by incorporating different types of particles (size, hydrophobicity, chemical properties, etc.), commonly called Janus liquid marbles (JLMs). However, their fabrication process remains a challenge, especially when we require continuous production. Here, we present a simple and fast approach for the fabrication of JLMs covered with nano- and microparticles in an additive-free environment based on the controlled impact of a water drop over the particle beds. The fabrication process involves collection of polyvinylidene difluoride particles (PVDF, particle type 1) by a water drop followed by its impact over an uncompressed bed of black toner particles (BTP, particle type 2). The whole process takes a time of approximately 30 ms only. The drop impact and the condition of the JLM formation were explained based on the Weber number (We) and maximum spread (βm) analysis. A theoretical model based on the energy balance analysis is performed to calculate the maximum spreading (βm), and the experimental and theoretical analyses are found to be in good agreement. Tunability in particle coverage is demonstrated by varying the droplet volume in the range of 5–15 μL. We further extend this strategy for the fast and continuous production of nearly identical JLMs, which could enhance the capabilities of open-surface microfluidic applications.

Extensive research is being devoted to both the fundamental and applied aspects of liquid marbles (LMs). However, influence of the surface tension of the liquid substrate on the stability of the LMs and LM-mediated capillary interaction remains unexplored. In this work, we unveil the role of the surface tension of the liquid substrate on the collapse of multilayered LMs and apply this knowledge for realizing a dense planar assembly of microparticles triggered by LM-mediated capillary interactions. Experiments and analysis show that the required surface tension for the collapse is dependent on the volume of the LMs. The larger LMs are less stable, and thus collapse at a higher surface tension than that required for smaller LMs. The results are explained on the basis of the balance between surface tension forces acting on the LM (F s) and its weight (F w). Force analysis reveals that the collapse of the LM on the liquid substrate occurs when the surface tension force approaches to its weight, that is, when F s ≈ F w. This has been verified for LMs having volume in the range 6–10 μL. The experiments with different surfactants (an anionic and a cationic) lead to similar results which indicate that the collapse condition of the LMs is mainly dependent on their weight and the surface tension of the liquid substrate. Further, we demonstrate the LM-mediated assembly of particles at the liquid surface, and interestingly, the LM can be collapsed once the assembly is completed, leading to a denser well-packed assembled structure. We believe that the presented results could provide new insights in the fields of microfluidics, particle patterning, and assembly.

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Micro elastofluidics is an emerging research field that encompasses characteristics of conventional microfluidics and fluid‐structure interactions. Micro elastofluidics is expected to enable practical applications, for instance, where direct contact between biological samples and fluid handling systems is required. Besides design optimization, choosing a proper material is critical to the practical use of micro elastofluidics upon interaction with biological interface and after its functional lifetime. Biodegradable polymers are one of the most studied materials for this purpose. Micro elastofluidic devices made of biodegradable polymers possess exceptional mechanical elasticity, excellent bio compatibility, and structural degradability into non‐toxic products. This article provides an insightful and systematic review of the utilization of biodegradable polymers in digital and continuous‐flow micro elastofluidics.

Core–shell particles are micro- or nanoparticles with solid, liquid, or gas cores encapsulated by protective solid shells. The unique composition of core and shell materials imparts smart properties on the particles. Core–shell particles are gaining increasing attention as tuneable and versatile carriers for pharmaceutical and biomedical applications including targeted drug delivery, controlled drug release, and biosensing. This review provides an overview of fabrication methods for core–shell particles followed by a brief discussion of their application and a detailed analysis of their manipulation including assembly, sorting, and triggered release. We compile current methodologies employed for manipulation of core–shell particles and demonstrate how existing methods of assembly and sorting micro/nanospheres can be adopted or modified for core–shell particles. Various triggered release approaches for diagnostics and drug delivery are also discussed in detail.

Digital droplet reactors have become a valuable tool for the analysis of single cells, organisms, or molecules by discretising reagents into picolitre or nanolitre volumes. However, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) based...

We investigated experimentally, analytically, and numerically the formation process of double emulsion formations under a dripping regime in a tri-axial co-flow capillary device. The results show that mismatches of core and shell droplets under a given flow condition can be captured both experimentally and numerically. We propose a semi-analytical model using the match ratio between the pinch-off length of the shell droplet and the product of the core growth rate and its pinch-off time. The mismatch issue can be avoided if the match ratio is lower than unity. We considered a model with the wall effect to predict the size of the matched double emulsion. The model shows slight deviations with experimental data if the Reynolds number of the continuous phase is lower than 0.06 but asymptotically approaches good agreement if the Reynolds number increases from 0.06 to 0.14. The numerical simulation generally agrees with the experiments under various flow conditions.

Droplet-based microfluidics and digital polymerase chain reaction (PCR) hold significant promise for accurately detecting and quantifying pathogens. However, existing droplet-based digital PCR (ddPCR) applications have been relying exclusively on single...