Preparation of Low-Surface-Energy Poly[2-(perfluorooctyl)ethyl acrylate] Microparticles and Its Application to Liquid Marble Formation

We demonstrate the successful preparation of stable liquid marbles from various liquids. This is accomplished by using low-surface-energy poly[2-(perfluorooetyl)ethyl acrylate] (PFA-C-8) as microparticles. The PFA-C-8 micropartides were prepared by the spontaneous self-organized microparticulation of PFA-C-8. The physical properties remained intact in the polymer morphology as confirmed by wide-angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) measurements. The extremely low surface energy of PFA-C-8 provides a high solid liquid spreading coefficient (S-S/L) value for various combinations of liquids. As a result, liquid marbles were obtained from various liquids, unlike the case with other fluorine polymer particles such as poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) and poly(vinilydene fluoride) (PVDF). These results suggest that the technique is widely applicable for preparing novel functional materials.