Wrapping with a splash: High-speed encapsulation with ultrathin sheets

Abstract

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.