Liquid Marbles

Liquid Marble is an interesting formation occurs when a liquid droplet interacts with a hydrophobic (or superhydrophobic) powder. The droplet can become encased in the powder, which essentially provides a protective "shell" or "jacket" for the liquid inside. The liquid inside is then isolated from contact with other solids or liquids and has some fascinating physical properties, which will be described later on. The main potential use for these liquid marbles appears to be for the formation of novel, hollow granules, which may have desirable properties in specific pharmaceutical applications (e.g. respiratory devices). They have also been shown to be a highly effectively means of water recovery and potentially as micro-transporters and micro-reactors. However many studies in the literature are essentially proof-of-concept approaches for applications and a systematic study of the dynamics of the marble formation and the first interactions of the liquid droplet with the powder is lacking. This is the motivation for this research project, where we aim to provide such information from an experimental study of drop impact onto hydrophobic powders with the use of high-speed imaging.

Autorentext

Being an Egyptian who was born and raised in Cairo, I studied Mechanical Engineering at the American University in Cairo. Post my undergraduate studies, I pursued my master's degree from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia where I got the opportunity to conduct the research work collected in this book.