Medical

Method Could Advance Next-Generation Liquid Structures

Liquid structures – liquid droplets that maintain a specific shape – are useful for a variety of applications, but researchers have yet to tap into the materials’ full potential because not much is known about how they form. Now, researchers from Berkeley Lab  have captured real-time high-resolution videos of liquid structures taking shape as nanoparticle surfactants (NPSs) jam tightly together, side by side, to form a solid-like layer at the interface between oil and water. The findings could help researchers better optimize liquid structures to advance new biomedical applications such as reconfigurable microfluidics for drug discovery and all-liquid robotics for targeted cancer drug delivery, and more.