TY - JOUR
T1 - Wrapping with a splash
T2 - High-speed encapsulation with ultrathin sheets
AU - Kumar, Deepak
AU - Paulsen, Joseph D.
AU - Russell, Thomas P.
AU - Menon, Narayanan
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge financial support from the W. M. Keck Foundation, NSF-DMR 1506750 (N.M.), and NSF-DMR-CAREER-1654102 (J.D.P.). We also acknowledge valuable guidance from J. Chang in making thin films. Raw data supporting the results presented in the paper and the supplementary materials can be obtained by requesting them from the corresponding author.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 American Association for the Advancement of Science. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2018/2/16
Y1 - 2018/2/16
N2 - Many complex fluids rely on surfactants to contain, protect, or isolate liquid drops in an immiscible continuous phase. Thin elastic sheets can wrap liquid drops in a spontaneous process driven by capillary forces. For encapsulation by sheets to be practically viable, a rapid, continuous, and scalable process is essential. We exploit the fast dynamics of droplet impact to achieve wrapping of oil droplets by ultrathin polymer films in a water phase. Despite the violence of splashing events, the process robustly yields wrappings that are optimally shaped to maximize the enclosed fluid volume and have near-perfect seams. We achieve wrappings of targeted three-dimensional (3D) shapes by tailoring the 2D boundary of the films and show the generality of the technique by producing both oil-in-water and water-in-oil wrappings.
AB - Many complex fluids rely on surfactants to contain, protect, or isolate liquid drops in an immiscible continuous phase. Thin elastic sheets can wrap liquid drops in a spontaneous process driven by capillary forces. For encapsulation by sheets to be practically viable, a rapid, continuous, and scalable process is essential. We exploit the fast dynamics of droplet impact to achieve wrapping of oil droplets by ultrathin polymer films in a water phase. Despite the violence of splashing events, the process robustly yields wrappings that are optimally shaped to maximize the enclosed fluid volume and have near-perfect seams. We achieve wrappings of targeted three-dimensional (3D) shapes by tailoring the 2D boundary of the films and show the generality of the technique by producing both oil-in-water and water-in-oil wrappings.
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U2 - 10.1126/science.aao1290
DO - 10.1126/science.aao1290
M3 - Article
C2 - 29449487
AN - SCOPUS:85042185971
SN - 0036-8075
VL - 359
SP - 775
EP - 778
JO - Science
JF - Science
IS - 6377
ER -