Scientists have discovered how to wrap a single drop of oil

One consideration for making a tasty dumpling,
is maximizing the amount of filling
for a given size wrapper--
without it falling apart.
A team of researchers applied the same principle
but instead of making dumplings they came up with
a fast way of making capsules
by wrapping a splashing liquid drop with a thin sheet.
In this demonstration, a drop of oil is released
at a specific height
onto a thin polymer sheet floating on a pool of water.
Immediately after impact,
as the droplet sinks into the pool,
an air pocket forms, reaches a maximum depth,
and then retracts back to the surface.
When the air pocket snaps back
the sheet wraps around the drop--
forming the capsule.
This sequence of events happens very fast--
in just milliseconds.
Once the wrapped oil separates from the water surface,
the capsule sinks under gravity.
The whole process begins with the thin polymer sheets,
which are cut into various designs.
The wrapper’s 2D shape determines the resulting
3D shapes of the capsules.
The final encapsulated shape is a result of the interplay
between the size and shape of the wrapper
and the size of the droplet.
The wrap stays in place because of surface tension
and differences between the interior
and exterior liquids.
The interior liquid pulls on the wrapper
to maximize the covered area.
Because of this, the edges of the wrappings
don’t overlap or leave an opening.
These near perfect seams reduce leakage
and slow down evaporation.
The capsules are tough enough to be prodded
yet they still revert back to their original shape.
Researchers demonstrated that the wrappings worked
with several different drop and environment pairings
and the wrapper could even be layered.
One day, this scalable wrapping recipe
could be used to make
multifunctional capsules that help preserve the liquids
contained inside and target them for delivery
to specific cells in the body.
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Scientists have discovered how to wrap a single drop of oil—without a bottle

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