Liquid marbles, liquid droplets coated with hydrophobic powder, have been emerging as a useful microfluidic platform. The ease of their synthesis and manipulation allows liquid marbles to serve as a robust microreactor. However, liquid marbles suffer the unavoidable problem of evaporation. Exposed to an environment with relatively low humidity, the liquid marble buckles and collapses due to evaporation. A suitably noninvasive technique to refill the liquid marble with water may open better opportunities for liquid marbles in microfluidics. To date, there has been no report on noninvasive methods for refilling the deflated liquid marble after the evaporation and subsequent buckling. This paper reports the noninvasive automatic refilling of liquid marbles using the concept of vapor transfer through porous media and subsequent condensation.
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Noninvasive refilling of liquid marbles with water for microfluidic applications
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7 February 2022
Research Article|
February 07 2022
Noninvasive refilling of liquid marbles with water for microfluidic applications

Kamalalayam Rajan Sreejith
;
Kamalalayam Rajan Sreejith
a)
Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University
, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia
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Pradip Singha;
Pradip Singha
Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University
, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia
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Nhat-Khuong Nguyen;
Nhat-Khuong Nguyen
Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University
, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia
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Chin Hong Ooi;
Chin Hong Ooi
Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University
, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia
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Dzung Viet Dao;
Dzung Viet Dao
Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University
, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia
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Nam-Trung Nguyen
Nam-Trung Nguyen
a)
Queensland Micro- and Nanotechnology Centre, Griffith University
, 170 Kessels Road, Nathan, Queensland 4111, Australia
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Appl. Phys. Lett. 120, 064102 (2022)
Article history
Received:
October 12 2021
Accepted:
January 17 2022
Citation
Kamalalayam Rajan Sreejith, Pradip Singha, Nhat-Khuong Nguyen, Chin Hong Ooi, Dzung Viet Dao, Nam-Trung Nguyen; Noninvasive refilling of liquid marbles with water for microfluidic applications. Appl. Phys. Lett. 7 February 2022; 120 (6): 064102. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0074887
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