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Fabrication of Three-dimensional Paper-based Microfluidic Devices for Immunoassays
Published on: March 9, 2017
Fabrication of cost-effective and efficient paper-based device for viscosity measurement
Anirudh Rayaprolu1, Saurabh Kumar Srivastava1, Ketan Anand1
1CSIR-Centre for Cellular & Molecular Biology, CCMB-Annexe-II, Medical Biotechnology Complex, Uppal, Hyderabad, 500039, Telangana, India.
Abstract:
Use of paper-based devices for affordable diagnostics is gaining interest due to unique advantages such as affordability, portability, easy disposability and inherent capillarity. As capillary transportation is an integral component of paper-based devices, low sample volume with faster measurement becomes an additional advantage. We have developed a simple, paper-based microfluidic device suitable for measuring the viscosity of Newtonian fluids as well as a few non-Newtonian fluids with sample volume as little as 12-20 μL. The results could be obtained much faster than the conventional methods. A comparative analysis of the results obtained with our paper-based viscometer and with that of the conventional Ostwald viscometer shows a correlation coefficient greater than 0.99. Apart from viscosity measurement, the paper-based devices were tested for protein denaturation and polymer molecular weight determination. Our results show that the paper-based viscometer could be a potential alternative for the conventional viscometers in the viscosity range from 0.9 cP up till ∼40 cP, with added benefits in terms of time, cost and low sample volume requirement.
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