RT Journal Article
T1 A portable extensional rheometer for measuring the viscoelasticity of pitcher plant and other sticky liquids in the field
A1 Collett, Catherine
A1 Ardron, Alia
A1 Bauer, Ulrique
A1 Chapman, Gary
A1 Chaudan, Elodie
A1 Hallmark, Bart
A1 Pratt, Lee
A1 Torres Pérez, María Dolores
A1 Willson, D Ian
K1 Biological fluids
K1 Filament
K1 Giesekus
K1 Nepenthes
K1 Pitcher plants
K1 Polymer solution
K1 Polysaccharide
K1 Rheometry
AB Biological fluids often have interesting and unusual physical properties to adapt them for their specific purpose. Laboratory-based rheometers can be used to characterise the viscoelastic properties of such fluids. This, however, can be challenging as samples often do not retain their natural properties in storage while conventional rheometers are fragile and expensive devices ill-suited for field measurements. We present a portable, low-cost extensional rheometer designed specifically to enable in situ studies of biological fluids in the field. The design of the device (named Seymour) is based on a conventional capillary break-up extensional rheometer (the Cambridge Trimaster). It works by rapidly stretching a small fluid sample between two metal pistons. A battery-operated solenoid switch triggers the pistons to move apart rapidly and a compact, robust and inexpensive, USB 3 high speed camera is used to record the thinning and break-up of the fluid filament that forms between the pistons. The complete setup runs independently of mains electricity supply and weighs approximately 1 kg. Post-processing and analysis of the recorded images to extract rheological parameters is performed using open source software.
PB BioMedCentral
SN 1746-4811
YR 2015
FD 2015
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/21518
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/21518
LA eng
NO Collett, C., Ardron, A., Bauer, U. et al. A portable extensional rheometer for measuring the viscoelasticity of pitcher plant and other sticky liquids in the field. Plant Methods 11, 16 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-015-0059-5
NO The following financial support is gratefully acknowledged: a Henslow Research Fellowship from the Cambridge Philosophical Society and a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship for UB; a visiting research fellowship (POS-A/2012/116) for MDT from Xunta de Galicia’s Consellería de Cultura, Educación e OrdenaciónUniversitaria of Spain and the European Union’s European Social Fund; and a summer project grant for CC from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge
DS Minerva
RD 24 abr 2026