Primary standard for liquid flow rates between 30 and 1500 nl/min based on volume expansion.
An increasing number of microfluidic systems operate at flow rates below 1 μl/min. Applications include (implanted) micropumps for drug delivery, liquid chromatography, and microreactors. For the applications where the absolute accuracy is important, a proper calibration is required. However, with standard calibration facilities, flow rate calibrations below ~1 μl/min are not feasible because of a too large calibration uncertainty. In the current research, a traceable flow rate using a certain temperature increase rate is proposed. When the fluid properties, starting mass, and temperature increase rate are known, this principle yields a direct link to SI units, which makes it a primary standard. In this article, it will be shown that this principle enables flow rate uncertainties in the order of 2-3% for flow rates from 30 to 1500 nl/min.
Peter
P
Lucas
Martin
M
Ahrens
Jan
J
Geršl
Wouter
W
Sparreboom
Joost
J
Lötters
D002138:Calibration; D002853:Chromatography, Liquid / Q000379:methods*; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D036103:Nanotechnology