Advancing Inorganic Microcapsule Fabrication through Frozen-Assisted Interfacial Reactions Utilizing Liquid Marbles

Inorganic microcapsules (IMs) have gained significant attention as versatile platforms for delivering functional agents in various fields. Traditional template-dependent methods employing hard templates often involve complex and harsh template removal processes. Achieving IMs with diverse composition and structure remains challenging with current preparation strategies. Therefore, in this work, we have for the first time demonstrated an extremely facile and efficient liquid-marbles-based template approach for fabricating pure inorganic microcapsules via interfacial reaction in a mild aqueous solution. The water-water reaction interface is created by changing the wettability of the liquid marble (LM) surface through the icing-melting process. The composition and function of the inorganic shell could be easily adjusted by varying the inorganic reagent species of the interfacial reaction, the hydrophobic particle of the shell, and the reaction environment according to the specific requirements of the application field. Such an approach provides a flexible platform for material preparation.