Low-consumption photoacoustic method to measure liquid viscosity.

Viscosity measurement is important in many areas of biomedicine and industry. Traditional viscometers are usually time-consuming and require huge sample volumes. Microfluidic viscometry may overcome the challenge of large sample consumption but suffers from a long process time and a complicated structure design and interaction. Here, we present a photoacoustic method that measures the liquid viscosity in a simple microfluidic-based tube. This new viscosity measurement method embraces fast detection speed and low fluid consumption, offering a new tool for efficient and convenient liquid viscosity measurement in a broad range of applications.