Determination of Electrical and Mechanical Properties of Liquids Using a Resonator with a Longitudinal Electric Field

Abstract

The possibility of determining the elastic modules, viscosity coefficients, dielectric constant and electrical conductivity of a viscous conducting liquid using a piezoelectric resonator with a longitudinal electric field is shown. For the research, we chose a piezoelectric resonator made on an AT-cut quartz plate with round electrodes, operating with a shear acoustic mode at a frequency of about 4.4 MHz. The resonator was fixed to the bottom of a 30 mL liquid container. The samples of a mixture of glycerol and water with different viscosity and conductivity were used as test liquids. First, the frequency dependences of the real and imaginary parts of the electrical impedance of a free resonator were measured and, using the Mason electromechanical circuit, the elastic module, viscosity coefficient, piezoelectric constant and dielectric constant of the resonator material (quartz) were determined. Then, the container was filled with the test sample of a liquid mixture so that the resonator was completely covered with liquid, and the measurement of the frequency dependences of the real and imaginary parts of the electrical impedance of the loaded resonator was repeated. The dependences of the frequency of parallel and series resonances, as well as the maximum values of the electrical impedance and admittance on the conductivity of liquids for various viscosity values, were plotted. It was shown that these dependences can be used to unambiguously determine the viscosity and conductivity of the test liquid. Next, by fitting the theoretical frequency dependences of the real and imaginary parts of the electrical impedance of the resonator loaded with the liquid under study to the experimental dependences, the elastic module of the liquid and its dielectric constant were determined.