Electrically deformable liquid marbles

Liquid marbles, which are droplets coated with a hydrophobic powder, were exposed to a uniform electric field. It was established that a threshold value of the electric field, 15 cgse, should be surmounted for deformation of liquid marbles. The shape of the marbles was described as a prolate spheroid. A semi-quantitative theory describing deformation of liquid marbles in a uniform electric field is presented. The scaling law relating the radius of the contact area of the marble to the applied electric field shows a satisfactory agreement with the experimental data.