Anisotropic colloids through non-trivial buckling

TL;DR

This paper investigates the buckling behavior of oil-filled colloidal shells through experiments, theory, and simulations, revealing how dissolution-induced stresses lead to distinct depression shapes.

Contribution

It introduces a combined experimental, theoretical, and numerical approach to understand buckling in colloidal shells with complex deformation patterns.

Findings

Buckling causes single depressions with axisymmetric or polygonal shapes.

Theoretical and numerical models successfully reproduce observed buckling patterns.

Dissolution of the core influences the shell's buckling morphology.

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.