Foams/bubbles stabilized with polymer particles

Solid particles have been well known to stabilize foams/bubbles by adsorption at gas-liquid interfaces. Synthetic polymer particles are a particularly attractive stabilizer for the foams/bubbles, because their sizes, shapes, surface/bulk chemistries, hydrophilicity-hydrophobicity balance and softness can be tailored and modified by heterogeneous polymerization techniques, (co)polymerizations of functional monomers, polymer reactions and polymer processing. Additionally, wide range of stimulus-responsive characteristics and film-forming nature of the polymer particles could inspire the design of functional and well-defined particle-stabilized foams/bubbles and materials based on them. This short review overviews aqueous foams/bubbles stabilized solely with synthetic polymer particles and material chemistry based on them, followed by discussions on research directions for the future.