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Gas marbles: ultra-long-lasting and ultra-robust bubbles formed by particle stabilization
Xuxin Zhao, Kunling Yang, Zhou Liu, Ho Cheung Shum, Tiantian Kong
Front. Chem. Sci. Eng. ›› 2022, Vol. 16 ›› Issue (11) : 1681-1687.
Gas marbles: ultra-long-lasting and ultra-robust bubbles formed by particle stabilization
Bubbles and foams are ubiquitous in daily life and industrial processes. Studying their dynamic behaviors is of key importance for foam manufacturing processes in food packaging, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Bare bubbles are inherently fragile and transient; enhancing their robustness and shelf lives is an ongoing challenge. Their rupture can be attributed to liquid evaporation, thin film drainage and the nuclei of environmental dust. Inspired by particle-stabilized interfaces in Pickering emulsions, armored bubbles and liquid marble, bubbles are protected by an enclosed particle-entrapping liquid thin film, and the resultant soft object is termed gas marble. The gas marble exhibits mechanical strength orders of magnitude higher than that of soap bubbles when subjected to overpressure and underpressure, owing to the compact particle monolayer straddling the surface liquid film. By using a water-absorbent glycerol solution, the resulting gas marble can persist for 465 d in normal atmospheric settings. This particle-stabilizing approach not only has practical implications for foam manufacturing processes but also can inspire the new design and fabrication of functional biomaterials and biomedicines.
bubble / particles / interfaces / armored bubble / liquid marble / gas marble / Pickering emulsion
Fig.1 (a) Schematics of a Pickering emulsion. (b) Asymmetric Janus Pickering emulsions through particle jamming of coalesced emulsions. The scale bar is 500 μm. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [15], copyright 2014, Springer Nature. (c) The deformation and stability of Pickering emulsions in an electric field. The scale bar is 300 μm. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [11], copyright 2013, The American Association for the Advancement of Science. (d) Schematics of an armored bubble. (e) Optic images of a spherical armored bubble. The scale bar is 400 μm. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [18], copyright 2006, American Chemical Society. (f) Two floating armored bubbles do not coalesce due to particle stabilization. The scale bar is 200 μm. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [37], copyright 2020 Elsevier. (g) Nonspherical armored bubbles with various shapes [18]. The scale bar is 200 μm. (h) Schematics of a liquid marble. (i) Photographs of liquid marbles encapsulating various chemical solutions. The scale bar is 2 mm. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [38], copyright 2019, Wiley-VCH. (j) SEM image of a dried polyhedral liquid marble stabilized by hexagonal fluorinated PET plates. The scale bar is 200 μm. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [39], copyright 2019, Wiley-VCH. (k) Complex particle-stabilized liquid/air surfaces forming a complex structure representing a Chinese dragon symbol. The scale bar is 10 cm. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [40], copyright 2018, Wiley-VCH. |
Fig.2 (a) Schematic of a gas marble. Insert illustrating the cross-section of the gas marble shell and the layout of particles on the marble surface. (b) Optical image of a gas marble. The fluorescent picture demonstrates the enlargement of the particle layout. (c) Comparison of mechanical stability among gas marbles, liquid marbles and armored marbles at different sizes of bubbles and drops (Db). Both the critical overpressures (ΔP+) and underpressures (ΔP+) are normalized by capillary pressure (ΔPcap) to make a fair comparison. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [45], copyright 2017, American Physicsal Society. |
Fig.3 (a) Morphology and lifetimes of different marbles: soap water bubble, water gas marble and water/glycerol gas marble. The water/glycerol gas marble has the longest lifetime, which maintains its morphology after 9 months. (b) Phase diagram of different regimes of gas marble depending on the initial glycerol mass ratio and the relative humidity. Reproduced with permission from Ref. [8], copyright 2022, American Physical Society. |
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Supplementary files
FCE-23055-OF-ZL_suppl_1 (894 KB)
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