Lignin-AuNPs liquid marble for remotely-controllable detection of Pb²

This work reported the green and facile fabrication of a versatile lignin-AuNP composite, which was readily and remotely encapsulated to form novel liquid marbles. The marbles can stay suspended in water, and show excellent photothermal conversion properties, as well as visual detection and adsorption towards Pb²⁺. More importantly, the marbles can simultaneously remotely detect and adsorb Pb²⁺ via co-precipitation by simply controlling the near infrared (NIR) irradiation. It is believed that the remotely-controllable NIR-responsive lignin-AuNPs liquid marble can be used in Pb²⁺-related reactions. The liquid marble can be placed in the system at the very beginning of the reaction and stably stays on the surface until the reaction has ended. After reacting, upon remote NIR irradiation, the liquid marble bursts to adsorb Pb²⁺, and the residual Pb²⁺ can be collected. This facile manipulation strategy does not use complicated nanostructures or sophisticated equipment, so it has potential applications for channel-free microfluidics, smart microreactors, microengines, and so on.