Quantification of Brownian motion under presence of flow using particle diffusometry

Abstract

Particle diffusometry (PD), a quantification method for the Brownian motion, is performed by recording temporally sequential images and using correlation analysis to obtain an ensemble diffusion coefficient for all particles captured in the imaging region (Clayton et al., 2017). PD is proven to be successful in the detection of the waterborne pathogen V. cholerae in environmental samples using different imaging techniques, including an inverted fluorescence microscope as well as a handheld hardware device operated with a smartphone (Clayton et al., 2019; Moehling et al., 2020). Although we intend to use PD to calculate diffusion coefficients in quiescent fluid, oftentimes unintentional fluid flows occur, creating measurement error when calculating the diffusion coefficient. In previous work, recordings under the presence of flow were discarded to avoid incorrect measurements of the sample.