Eur. Phys. J. E (2008) 27: 13-20
https://doi.org/10.1140/epje/i2007-10365-2

Anisotropic colloids through non-trivial buckling

¹ Laboratoire de Spectrométrie Physique, CNRS UMR 5588 and Université Joseph Fourier, 140 avenue de la Physique, 38402, Saint-Martin d’Hères Cedex, France
² Soft Condensed Matter, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Faculty of Science, Utrecht University, Princetonplein 5, 3584 CC, Utrecht, The Netherlands
³ DEAS, Harvard University, 29, Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA, 02138, USA

^* e-mail: Catherine.Quilliet@ujf-grenoble.fr

Received: 29 March 2007
Revised: 27 February 2008
Published online: 1 August 2008

Abstract

We present a study on buckling of colloidal particles, including experimental, theoretical and numerical developments. Oil-filled thin shells prepared by emulsion templating show buckling in mixtures of water and ethanol, due to dissolution of the core in the external medium. This leads to conformations with a single depression, either axisymmetric or polygonal depending on the geometrical features of the shells. These conformations could be theoretically and/or numerically reproduced in a model of homogeneous spherical thin shells with bending and stretching elasticity, submitted to an isotropic external pressure.