Design and Implementation of a Micro-rheometer for POC Applications

Abstract

This paper presents a new envisaged micro-rheometer device based on a Lab-on-a-Chip solution, focused to biomedical applications with small volume of sample (less than 50 µL). Based on capturing the fluids velocity along a microchannel, this novel device presents great advantages over products already on the market for measuring the fluid viscosity, ranging from the cost to the simplicity of operation. The presented device has the capability to extract the viscosity of any type of fluid with a microdevice manufactured with PDMS (polydimethylsiloxane) and electrodes screen-printed over a PET (polyethylene terephthalate) surface. In the present work Newtonian fluids, such as water and ethylene glycol at different concentrations, have been used to calibrate the device, and non-Newtonian fluids such as blood has been employed to test it. We have observed in our initial experiments the predictable Newtonian behavior in the case of water and ethylene glycol and with blood, the non-Newtonian nature of the sample. Analyzing the results, the precision and accuracy of the device has been validated obtaining values of viscosity, with the presented set-up, which differ from those in the literature by a 10%.

The original version of this chapter was inadvertently published with an incorrect chapter pagination 451–455 and DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_88. The page range and the DOI has been re-assigned. The correct page range is 457–461 and the DOI is 10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_89. The erratum to this chapter is available at DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_260

An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_260