Shaped composite liquid marbles.

Shaped "cubic" non-stick droplets are reported. Shaped composite droplets were manufactured via a two-stage process. In the first stage, cubic foamed-polystyrene particles were hydrophilized with cold radiofrequency plasma.

Formation of liquid marbles and wetting transitions.

The formation of liquid marbles was studied in the situation where hydrophobic particles coating the marbles "come from air". Droplets of water/ethanol solutions of various concentrations were coated with three kinds of powders: polytetrafluoroethylene, polyvinylidene fluoride and polyethylene. We established that there exists a critical concentration of ethanol, and correspondingly a critical surface tension of the water/ethanol solution allowing formation of liquid marbles.