Chemically Triggered Coalescence and Reactivity of Droplet Fibers

Modulating Coalescence Timing of Liquid Marbles via Wettability Adaptation

Droplet coalescence is ubiquitous in nature, and its regulation is significant in industrial processes and biomedical applications. While bare droplets suddenly coalesce in contact, the droplets covered with liquid-repellent particles to form "liquid marbles (LMs)" are not. Previously, the external stimuli-responsive breakage of the particle layer enables the regulation of the coalescence timing. However, preprogramming the coalescence timing of droplets without stimuli is challenging. In this work, LMs that break the particle layer in preprogrammed time are reported. The particles have a core wettable site and are tethered with a low-wettability flexible molecular chain, which gradually increases wettability with time. The time-dependent wettability variation is observed because of the differences in the adaptation of the molecular chain; thus, it is repeatedly available, and its speed is controllable by chain length. The formed LMs expose bare droplet surfaces in preprogrammed timing, which enables the modulation of coalescence timing from 2 to 45 min without relying on external stimuli. Moreover, the additivity of the particles enables the fine-tuning of the coalescence time with ≈1 min resolutions. Further, the contact of several LMs with different adaptation times enables cascade droplet coalescence, opening a new route for droplet manipulation.

Sulfobetaine Zwitterions with Embedded Fluorocarbons: Synthesis and Interfacial Properties

We describe the preparation of a new set of fluorinated sulfobetaine (FSB) zwitterionic polymers in which fluorocarbon moieties are attached directly to the zwitterionic components. An efficient two-step modification to the conventional sulfobetaine methacrylate monomer synthesis gave access to a series of polymer zwitterions containing varying extents of fluorocarbon character. FSB methacrylates proved amenable to homo- and copolymerizations using reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) conditions, affording polymers with molecular weights ranging from 5 to 20 kDa and with low molecular weight distributions. Thin films of FSB homopolymers on glass proved stable to aqueous environments and exhibited increasing hydrophobicity with fluorocarbon content, as well as remarkably large water contact angle hysteresis values that enable pinning of water droplets on hydrophobic surfaces, reminiscent of the "petal effect" found in nature. FSB-containing copolymers in aqueous media demonstrated markedly reduced oil-water interfacial tension values, even with moderate (20-50 mol %) FSB incorporation.

Embedding Thiols into Choline Phosphate Polymer Zwitterions

The compositional scope of polymer zwitterions has grown significantly in recent years and now offers designer synthetic materials that are broadly applicable across numerous areas, including supracolloidal structures, electronic materials interfaces, and macromolecular therapeutics. Among recent developments in polymer zwitterion syntheses are those that allow insertion of reactive functionality directly into the zwitterionic moiety, yielding new monomer and polymer structures that hold potential for maximizing the impact of zwitterions on the macromolecular materials chemistry field. This manuscript describes the preparation of zwitterionic choline phosphate (CP) methacrylates containing either aromatic or aliphatic thiols embedded directly into the zwitterionic moiety. The polymerization of these functional CP methacrylates by reversible addition-fragmentation chain-transfer methodology yields polymeric zwitterionic thiols containing protected thiol functionality in the zwitterionic units. After polymerization, the protected thiols are liberated to yield thiol-rich polymer zwitterions which serve as precursors to subsequent reactions that produce polymer networks as well as polymer-protein bioconjugates.

Reconfigurable droplet networks

Droplet networks stabilized by lipid interfacial bilayers or colloidal particles have been extensively investigated in recent years and are of great interest for compartmentalized reactions and biological functions. However, current design strategies are disadvantaged by complex preparations and limited droplet size. Here, by using the assembly and jamming of cucurbit[8]uril surfactants at the oil-water interface, we show a novel means of preparing droplet networks that are multi-responsive, reconfigurable, and internally connected over macroscopic distances. Openings between the droplets enable the exchange of matter, affording a platform for chemical reactions and material synthesis. Our work requires only a manual compression to construct complex patterns of droplet networks, underscoring the simplicity of this strategy and the range of potential applications.

Responsive Janus droplets as modular sensory layers for the optical detection of bacteria

The field of biosensor development is fueled by innovations in new functional transduction materials and technologies. Material innovations promise to extend current sensor hardware limitations, reduce analysis costs, and ensure broad application of sensor methods. Optical sensors are particularly attractive because they enable sensitive and noninvasive analyte detection in near real-time. Optical transducers convert physical, chemical, or biological events into detectable changes in fluorescence, refractive index, or spectroscopic shifts. Thus, in addition to sophisticated biochemical selector designs, smart transducers can improve signal transmission and amplification, thereby greatly facilitating the practical applicability of biosensors, which, to date, is often hampered by complications such as difficult replication of reproducible selector-analyte interactions within a uniform and consistent sensing area. In this context, stimuli-responsive and optically active Janus emulsions, which are dispersions of kinetically stabilized biphasic fluid droplets, have emerged as a novel triggerable material platform that provides as a versatile and cost-effective alternative for the generation of reproducible, highly sensitive, and modular optical sensing layers. The intrinsic and unprecedented chemical-morphological-optical coupling inside Janus droplets has facilitated optical signal transduction and amplification in various chemo- and biosensor paradigms, which include examples for the rapid and cost-effective detection of major foodborne pathogens. These initial demonstrations resulted in detection limits that rival the capabilities of current commercial platforms. This trend article aims to present a conceptual summary of these initial efforts and to provide a concise and comprehensive overview of the pivotal kinetic and thermodynamic principles that govern the ability of Janus droplets to sensitively and selectively respond to and interact with bacteria.

Spongy all-in-liquid materials by in-situ formation of emulsions at oil-water interfaces

Printing a structured network of functionalized droplets in a liquid medium enables engineering collectives of living cells for functional purposes and promises enormous applications in processes ranging from energy storage to tissue engineering. Current approaches are limited to drop-by-drop printing or face limitations in reproducing the sophisticated internal features of a structured material and its interactions with the surrounding media. Here, we report a simple approach for creating stable liquid filaments of silica nanoparticle dispersions and use them as inks to print all-in-liquid materials that consist of a network of droplets. Silica nanoparticles stabilize liquid filaments at Weber numbers two orders of magnitude smaller than previously reported in liquid-liquid systems by rapidly producing a concentrated emulsion zone at the oil-water interface. We experimentally demonstrate the printed aqueous phase is emulsified in-situ; consequently, a 3D structure is achieved with flexible walls consisting of layered emulsions. The tube-like printed features have a spongy texture resembling miniaturized versions of “tube sponges” found in the oceans. A scaling analysis based on the interplay between hydrodynamics and emulsification kinetics reveals that filaments are formed when emulsions are generated and remain at the interface during the printing period. Stabilized filaments are utilized for printing liquid-based fluidic channels.

All-in-liquid printing promises applications from energy storage to drug delivery and tissue engineering. Here, authors present the in-situ generation of layered emulsion in a fraction of a second at the oil-water interface forming 3D tube-like structures in a liquid medium.

Zwitterionic Ammonium Sulfonate Polymers: Synthesis and Properties in Fluids

Polymer zwitterions continue to emerge as useful materials for numerous applications, ranging from hydrophilic and antifouling coatings to electronic materials interfaces. While several polymer zwitterion compositions are now well established, interest in this field of soft materials science has grown rapidly in recent years due to the introduction of new structures that diversify their chemistry and architecture. Nonetheless, at present, the variation of the chemical composition of the anionic and cationic components of zwitterionic structures remains relatively limited to a few primary examples. In this article, we highlight the versatility of 4-vinylbenzyl sultone as a precursor to ammonium sulfonate zwitterionic monomers, which are then used in controlled free radical polymerization chemistry to afford "inverted sulfobetaine" polymer zwitterions. An evaluation of the solubility, interfacial activity, and solution configuration of the resultant polymers revealed the dependence of properties on the selection of tertiary amines used for nucleophilic ring-opening of the sultone precursor, as well as useful properties comparisons across different zwitterionic compositions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.