Shaping Liquid Droplets on an Active Air–Ferrofluid Interface

An air–liquid interface is important in many biological and industrial applications, where the manipulation of liquids on the air–liquid interface can have a significant impact. However, current manipulation techniques on the interface are mostly limited to transportation and trapping. Here, we report a magnetic liquid shaping method that can squeeze, rotate, and shape nonmagnetic liquids on an air–ferrofluid interface with programmable deformation. We can control the aspect ratio of the ellipse and generate repeatable quasi-static shapes of a hexadecane oil droplet. We can rotate droplets and stir liquids into spiral-like structures. We can also shape phase-changing liquids and fabricate shape-programmed thin films at the air–ferrofluid interface. The proposed method may potentially open up new possibilities for film fabrication, tissue engineering, and biological experiments that can be carried out at an air–liquid interface.