Publication details
A simple microviscometric approach based on Brownian motion tracking
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Review of Scientific Instruments |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/journal/rsi/86/2/10.1063/1.4913386 |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.4913386 |
| Field | Biophysics |
| Keywords | Viscosity; Brownian motion; Computer software; Diffusion; Particle trajectory |
| Description | Viscosity—an integral property of a liquid—is traditionally determined by mechanical instruments. The most pronounced disadvantage of such an approach is the requirement of a large sample volume, which poses a serious obstacle, particularly in biology and biophysics when working with limited samples. Scaling down the required volume by means of microviscometry based on tracking the Brownian motion of particles can provide a reasonable alternative. In this paper, we report a simple microviscometric approach which can be conducted with common laboratory equipment. The core of this approach consists in a freely available standalone script to process particle trajectory data based on a Newtonian model. In our study, this setup allowed the sample to be scaled down to 10 ul. The utility of the approach was demonstrated using model solutions of glycerine, hyaluronate, and mouse blood plasma. Therefore, this microviscometric approach based on a newly developed freely available script can be suggested for determination of the viscosity of small biological samples (e.g., body fluids). |