A Novel Viscometer Based on Self-Propelled Nanomotor

Liquid viscosity is a vital metric in the field of mciroelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS). However, the complexity and high cost of the measurement in micro scale are prompting unconventional route for detecting viscosities. Since the velocity of nanomotor is mainly determined by the viscosities of solution, the nanomotor can potentially be used to measure the viscosity of solution. In this work, a self-propelled nanomotor based viscometer is developed, and studied both theoretically and experimentally. A hydrodynamic model to describe the motion of nanomotor is proposed to investigate the relationship between the viscosity and the velocity of nanomotor. The effect of the material properties and geometric parameters of nanomotor on the accuracy of viscometer are identified experimentally. In addition, a comparison between the numerical and experimental results is also provided.