Integrated Optofluidic Chip for Low-Volume Fluid Viscosity Measurement

Yang, Tianhang; Nava, Giovanni; Vitali, Valerio; Bragheri, Francesca; Osellame, Roberto; Bellini, Tommaso; Cristiani, Ilaria; Minzioni, P.

doi:10.3390/mi8030065

Cited by 10 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 25 publications

(33 reference statements)

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“…In addition, operations of the optical tweezer relied on highly trained personnel. Similar work with an integrated optofluidic chip was also conducted by Yang et al [20]. Instead of trapping microbeads, they laterally shot single microbeads in a microchannel with optical fibers.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Investigation of Micro-volume Viscosity with Janus Microbeads Based on Rotational Brownian Motion

Chen

Phong

et al. 2019

Sensors

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Viscosity is an important property of liquids. A viscosity change of aqueous substances that deviates from their normal levels usually implies a compromise in quality due to degradation or microorganism proliferation. Monitoring of macro-scale viscosity can be simply realized by various conventional tools, such as rotational viscometers, capillary tubes, falling bodies, and so forth. Nevertheless, today, micro-volume viscosity measurement remains a challenging endeavor, resulting in rare, expensive, or difficult-to-obtain samples not very well studied. For this reason, a novel technique for micro-viscosity based on rotational Brownian motion is presented in this paper. Janus microbeads were made by coating fluorescent polystyrene beads with gold film. Taking advantage of the bead configuration of half gold/half fluorescence, the rotational Brownian signal was expressed in terms of blinking fluorescent intensity. The characteristic correlation time was derived from the blinking intensity of trace amounts of a selected medium over a certain time period, and results were correlated with viscosity. Given a volume of only 2 μL for each measurement, calibration of a series of glycerol–water mixtures (100%–1% (v/v) water content) yielded good agreement with the expected viscosity predictions over the range of 0.8–574.8 cP. Five common oil products, including lubricant oil, baby oil, food oil, olive oil, and motor oil, were further investigated to demonstrate the feasibility and practicability of the proposed technique. Data measured by the rotational Brownian motion-based diffusometer were comparable with those measured by a commercial rotational viscometer. The method also explicitly showed viscosity degradation after the oils were heated at a high temperature of over 100 °C for 10 min. Evaluation proved the proposed Janus microbead-enabled rotational diffusometric technique to be a promising approach for rapid and micro-scale viscosity measurement.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Investigation of Micro-volume Viscosity with Janus Microbeads Based on Rotational Brownian Motion

Chen

Phong

et al. 2019

Sensors

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“…This microfluidic constriction chip was used to retrieve information on the sample mechanical properties [ 98 ]. Another device that exploits an unbalanced optical trap is the one presented by Yang et al [ 99 ], who presented an integrated optofluidic chip that was capable of retrieving the viscosity of the fluid through experiments of optical shooting on single particles. The sample trajectory is recorded, analysed, and fitted with theoretical curves, allowing for the characterization of the fluid properties.…”

Section: Diverging Beam Particles Manipulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Particle Manipulation by Optical Forces in Microfluidic Devices

et al. 2018

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Since the pioneering work of Ashkin and coworkers, back in 1970, optical manipulation gained an increasing interest among the scientific community. Indeed, the advantages and the possibilities of this technique are unsubtle, allowing for the manipulation of small particles with a broad spectrum of dimensions (nanometers to micrometers size), with no physical contact and without affecting the sample viability. Thus, optical manipulation rapidly found a large set of applications in different fields, such as cell biology, biophysics, and genetics. Moreover, large benefits followed the combination of optical manipulation and microfluidic channels, adding to optical manipulation the advantages of microfluidics, such as a continuous sample replacement and therefore high throughput and automatic sample processing. In this work, we will discuss the state of the art of these optofluidic devices, where optical manipulation is used in combination with microfluidic devices. We will distinguish on the optical method implemented and three main categories will be presented and explored: (i) a single highly focused beam used to manipulate the sample, (ii) one or more diverging beams imping on the sample, or (iii) evanescent wave based manipulation.

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“…>5) refractive index particles. Furthermore, by combining a microfluidic chip with waveguides fabricated in glass via femtosecond laser micromachining [24][25][26] , an excellent spatial and temporal control can be obtained over force application. Indeed, the device has been recently applied for the microrheological characterization of viscoelastic surfactant solutions 27 and DNA hydrogels 28 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%