Buckling instability of self-assembled colloidal columns.

Suspended, slender self-assembled domains of magnetically responsive colloids are observed to buckle in microgravity. Upon cessation of the magnetic field that drives their assembly, these columns expand axially and buckle laterally. This phenomenon resembles the buckling of long beams due to thermal expansion; however, linear stability analysis predicts that the colloidal columns are inherently susceptible to buckling because they are freely suspended in a Newtonian fluid. The dominant buckling wavelength increases linearly with column thickness and is quantitatively described using an elastohydrodynamic model and the suspension thermodynamic equation of state.