Liquid marble: A novel liquid nanofoam structure for energy absorption

The liquid nanofoam (LN), a system composed of liquid and hydrophobic nanoporous particles, is a promising energy absorbing material. Despite its excellent energy absorbing capabilities under quasi-static conditions, the LN’s performance is limited under dynamic impacts due to its heterogeneity. We hypothesize that the energy absorption capacity of the LN can be increased by reconfiguration of the material into a liquid marble form. To test this hypothesis, we have prepared the LN sample in two different configurations, one with the heterogeneous layered structure and the other with a macroscopically homogeneous liquid marble structure. The mechanical behavior of these two types of LN was examined by quasi-static compression tests and dynamic impact tests. We demonstrated that although both types of LN exhibited comparable quasi-static energy absorption capacity, the liquid marble form of LN showed better performance under dynamic impacts. These findings suggest that the liquid marble form is the preferred LN structure under blunt impact and shed lights on the design of next-generation energy absorbing materials and structures.