Automated pipetting robot for proxy high-throughput viscometry of Newtonian fluids

• Main Authors: Soh, Beatrice W., Chitre, Aniket, Lee, Wen Yang, Bash, Daniil, Kumar, Jatin N., Hippalgaonkar, Kedar
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science and Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Engineering::Materials; Newtonian Fluids; Viscometry
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/171075
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

In this work, we develop a high-throughput viscometer for Newtonian fluids with viscosities between 1500 and 12 000 cP. The viscometer is developed based on an automated pipetting robot Opentrons (OT-2), with a commercial wide bore tip. The measurement protocol exploits the known characteristics of air-displacement pipettes in dispensing and gravimetrically measuring fluids of different viscosities. Specifically, by measuring the actual dispense flow rate of fluids with varying viscosities under fixed dispense conditions, we construct a calibration curve and propose a scaling analysis based on flow through an idealized pipette tip geometry. Our model can predict the viscosity of Newtonian fluids with an error of 6.5%. We also showcase the flexibility of our platform by integrating a custom-design tip for a different viscosity range.