Nanoscience Lets Researchers Cut Liquids Like Play-Doh

By coating liquid in silica particles, it can be manipulated like a gelatin substance.

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Researchers from Tongji University in Shanghai, China, have developed a liquid material that can be cut up and molded into different shapes like gelatin or Play-Doh. The material is created by coating liquids in a hydrophobic layer that holds the liquid in place.

The research team expanded on previous methods of using hydrophobic substances to make stable liquid marbles and water-resistant textiles. By drying a silica-based gel on glass slides, the team was able to make layers of silica particles just 20-nanometers thick.

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When they put water droplets onto the layers, they were coated in a single layer of silica particles that lead researcher Xiaoguang Li told New Scientist is "basically" a monolayer, or a one-molecule thick layer. This allows the material to remain transparent, unlike other liquid marbles that are opaque due to the hydrophobic coating.

The research team calls the new material "liquid plasticine." When hydrophobic tools are used to move the liquid plasticine around, it retains its shape. Two droplets of the material will merge much like regular drops of water.

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The convex droplets of liquid plasticine could make for useful liquid magnifying lenses. The team also discovered that chemicals added to the material diffuse slower than in ordinary liquid, slowing down the time of chemical reactions. The drops could be used by chemists as miniature test tubes, and their transparency makes chemical processes easy to observe in the drops.

A paper detailing the team's findings was recently published in the journal Soft Matter. Li is optimistic that many more chemical applications will be discovered for the new material as researchers continue to study it.

Source: New Scientist

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