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Where physics meets chemistry meets biology for fundamental soft matter research.
Review
Soft Matter, 2006, 2, 310 - 323, DOI: 10.1039/b516741h
Soft matter with hard skin: From skin wrinkles to templating and material characterization
Jan Genzer and Jan Groenewold
The English-language dictionary defines wrinkles as
small furrows, ridges, or creases on a normally smooth surface, caused by crumpling, folding, or shrinking
. In this paper we review the scientific aspects of wrinkling and the related phenomenon of buckling. Specifically, we discuss how and why wrinkles/buckles form in various materials. We also describe several examples from everyday life, which demonstrate that wrinkling or buckling is indeed a commonplace phenomenon that spans a multitude of length scales. We will emphasize that wrinkling is not always a frustrating feature (e.g., wrinkles in human skin), as it can help to assemble new structures, understand important physical phenomena, and even assist in characterizing chief material properties.
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