Highly Transparent Liquid Marble in Liquid (Ht-Lmil) as 3d Miniaturized Reactor for Real-Time Bio-/Chemical Assays

Traditional liquid marbles (LMs), are liquid droplets encapsulated by hydrophobic particles offering special 3D stereo-architectures with structurally and functionally confined environment that inhibited facial persona that impedes optical characterization in chemical analysis and process monitoring for fluid reactions. For the first time, we manipulate the liquid-solid interface by the paradigm of 3D liquid marbles in liquid (3D-LMIL) strategy, in which LMs are immersed in various aqueous mediums rendering optically transparent micro-reactor system without compromising on its intuitive functional potential. We demonstrated comparable transmittance of LMIL towards naked water droplet via UV-vis spectroscopic monitoring of MB degradation, and its function as an oil immersion len gives higher resolution in optical spectroscopic characterization. The high optical transparency of LMIL enables real-time and in-situ monitoring of yeast cell’s proliferation and propagation via layer by layer, encouraging them to differentiate in suspension without anchoring. Such a multifaceted characteristics of LMIL based platform offers a one-pot optically transparent and functionally promising micro/bio-reactors with future explorations in high-throughput chemical assays