Measurement of dielectric constant of

organic solvents by indigenously developed

dielectric probe
Cite as: AIP Conference Proceedings 1951, 030011 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5031737
Published Online: 17 April 2018

Ajay Kumar Keshari, J. Prabhakar Rao, C. V. S. Brahmmananda Rao, et al.

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AIP Conference Proceedings 1951, 030011 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5031737 1951, 030011

© 2018 Author(s).
Measurement of Dielectric Constant of Organic Solvents by
Indigenously Developed Dielectric Probe
Ajay Kumar Kesharia), J. Prabhakar Rao,
C.V.S. Brahmmananda Rao, R. Ramakrishnan, R.R. Ramanarayanan

Materials Chemistry & Metal Fuel Cycle Group

Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam - 603102, Tamil Nadu, India
a)
Email: ajayanu@igcar.gov.in

Abstract. The extraction, separation and purification of actinides (uranium and plutonium) from various matrices are an
important step in nuclear fuel cycle. One of the separation process adopted in an industrial scale is the liquid-liquid
extraction or solvent extraction. Liquid-liquid extraction uses a specific ligand/extractant in conjunction with suitable
diluent. Solvent extraction or liquid-liquid extraction, involves the partitioning of the solute between two immiscible
phases. In most cases, one of the phases is aqueous, and the other one is an organic solvent. The solvent used in solvent
extraction should be selective for the metal of interest, it should have optimum distribution ratio, and the loaded metal
from the organic phase should be easily stripped under suitable experimental conditions. Some of the important physical
properties which are important for the solvent are density, viscosity, phase separation time, interfacial surface tension and
the polarity of the extractant.

The polarity of the solvent and diluent dictates the choice of the solvent/diluent combination that can be used for the
extraction of a metal. The polarity of the solvent also limits the amount of metal than can be loaded in to the organic
phase without splitting the organic phase i.e. formation of third phase. Generally, the dielectric constant (ε) of a solvent is
a measure of its polarity. The higher ε means, higher the polarity and greater is the ability of the solvent to stabilize the
charge. Hence the measurement of dielectric constant is vital in deciding the usage of the solvent for a given application.
The present manuscript deals with the development of a probe and the required instrumentation for the determination of
dielectric constant of organic solvents. This probe was used to measure the dielectric constant of indigenously
synthesized solvents such as Di-iso-amylhydrogen phosphonate (DiAHP) and Di-iso-butylhydrogen phosphonate
(DiBHP).

The basic technique for measurement of dielectric constant is based on measuring the capacitance of dielectric probe in
solvent. The change of capacitance of dielectric probe with solvent is proportional to change of dielectric constant of
solvent. The development of dielectric probe is a challenging task, as the measurement involves the estimation of
capacitance over a wide range with high degree of accuracy. The dielectric probe was designed in such a way that the
value of capacitance of dielectric probe with solvent is above pico-farad range and also the requirement of the solvent is
also minimal (~ 30 mL). The capacitance of dielectric probe is measured by using astable multivibrator configuration.
The change of capacitance is inversely proportional to change of frequency. The Graphical User Interface (GUI) has been
developed to acquire the data through RS-232. The software provides an online graphical display of the dielectric
constant of solvent which enables the user to determine the regions of stability. The software also provides on-demand
pop-up window to check the overall trend of dielectric constant of solvent to view a larger data by click of a button. The
datum is stored in a file for analysis. An indigenous dielectric constant measurement set-up has been developed in our
laboratory at IGCAR.

The instrument has been calibrated with standard solvents whose dielectric constants are known accurately from the
literature. Some of these solvents were taken to validate the precision of the instrument. The instrument has been used to
find out the dielectric constants of in-house synthesized solvents whose dielectric constants are not available in the
literature.

Keywords: Solvents, polarity, Dielectric constant, Astable multivibrator frequency, Dielectric probe, Capacitance,
Graphical user interface (GUI), Actinides.

9th National Conference on Thermophysical Properties (NCTP-2017)

AIP Conf. Proc. 1951, 030011-1–030011-9; https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5031737
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1646-8/$30.00

030011-1
 INTRODUCTION
Recent advances in analytical chemistry are characterized by great progress achieved towards more powerful
methods of separation and instrumental methods of determination. Separation of desired constituent and
measurement of the amount or the concentration of constituent are two important steps in analytical chemistry. One
of the methods is solvent extraction which is easy and simple, yielding good separation of species with the use of
simple apparatus and operated for short periods [1, 2].

Actinide separation techniques play very important role in analysis and production of nuclear materials,
reprocessing of nuclear fuels, nuclear waste management, and other aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle [3-5]. The
actinide elements consist of naturally occurring thorium, protactinium, and uranium and the synthetic elements from
neptunium to lawrencium. Various solvents were synthesized in our laboratory for extraction, separation and
recovery of actinides by solvent extraction. Solvent extraction is a method to separate a metal/compound based on
the solubility in the organic phase. In solvent extraction, the polarity of the organic phase is important and it decides
the amount of metal which can be loaded in the organic phase [6-7]. The extraction, separation and purification of
uranium & plutonium from spent fuel in nuclear reprocessing industry are carried out by solvent extraction [9-12].
The dielectric constant of a solvent is an acceptable approximation of the solvent’s ability to solvate a given metal.
The polarity of the solvent and diluents explain the choice of the solvent/diluents for extraction of actinide. Since the
dielectric constant (ε) of a solvent is a measure of its polarity and higher ε means higher the polarity and greater is
the ability of the solvent to stabilize the charge [13, 14]. Hence the measurement of dielectric constant is required for
extraction of actinides using solvent extraction techniques. The dielectric probe has been developed and tested to
measure dielectric constant of solvents.
The dielectric probe is based on parallel plate capacitor in which medium is a given solvent [15, 16]. The change
of dielectric constant of solvent is proportional to the change of capacitance of dielectric probe given by eqn. (1)
[17-19]
(Cs )
ε= (1)
(Co )
Where
‘ε’ is the dielectric constant of the solvent
‘Cs’ = capacitance of the probe in solvent
‘C0’ = capacitance of the probe in air
The dielectric constant of a solvent is a function of given temperature [20]. There are various techniques like
Wheatstone bridge, astable multivibrator, XR-2206 oscillator etc. which are used for the measurement of
capacitance [21-23]. 8051 based microcontroller is used to measure the change in frequency due to change in
capacitance and process the data as engineering units [24-26].

For measurement of dielectric constant, an indigenous dielectric probe was developed and optimized for size so
that minimum volume of solvent was required for the measurement of dielectric constant. Hardware and software
has been developed for measuring the capacitance of dielectric probe. The hardware is based on astable
multivibrator configuration for the measurement of capacitance of the probe with solvent. The data acquisition
software has been developed to collect the data in PC through LAN for the study of measured dielectric constant of
solvent. The software has various features to analyze the data.

The dielectric probe has been calibrated with various known standard solvents in laboratory in calibration mode.
The dielectric constant of solvents has been measured in measurement mode. The hardware and software were
validated by conducting the experiments for measuring of dielectric constant of standard solvents.
The major challenge was the measurement of wide range of capacitance with high accuracy and optimization of the
size, materials etc. of dielectric probe so as to use minimum volume of solvent for measuring dielectric constant.
The unit has been deployed in chemistry labs used to study the synthesized solvents used in actinide separation by
measuring the dielectric constant of solvents.
The details of development of dielectric probe, hardware, software and study of solvents towards the extraction
of actinide are described in this paper.

030011-2
 PRINCIPLE
The basic formula for capacitance measurement is given in eqn. (2). It is evident from the equation, that the
change of dielectric constant of solvent is directly proportion to change of capacitance as other parameters area,
diameter between plates etc. are fixed. Hence, the dielectric constant of solvent is measured by measuring the
capacitance of dielectric probe immersed in solvent.

ε oε A
C= (2)
d
Where
‘C’ = capacitance of the probe
‘ε 0’ is the permittivity in vacuum/air
‘ε’ is the dielectric constant of the solvent
‘A’ is the area of the dielectric plates
‘d’ is the distance between the dielectric plates.

DESIGN APPROACH
Different techniques were analyzed for measuring the capacitance of dielectric probe. Astable multivibrator,
Wheatstone bridge, Schering Bridge, impedance measurement method are the possible methods. The astable
multivibrator method for measurement of dielectric constant of solvents was adopted as it gives the output in digital
form and can be interfaced directly with microcontroller for counting. The frequency of astable multivibrator
depends on the values of feedback & divider resistor R and capacitor C. The value of feedback and divider resistors
R are optimized and kept constant for required range of measurement of dielectric constant. Hence, the frequency of
astable multivibrator depends on change of capacitance of dielectric probe. The frequency is given by following
equation
R1
β= (3)
R1 + R 2
1+ β
T = 2RC ln (4)
1− β
1
f =
T (5)
Where f= frequency of oscillation
R=fixed resistor
C= capacitance of dielectric probe
β = feedback resistor constant

030011-3
 OVERALL BLOCK DIAGRAM OF INSTRUMENT

Resistor

Data
Processing LAN
Dielectric Astable Multivibrator Signal Conditioning Opto coupler circuit
Probe Circuit LCD

Keyboard

PC

FIGURE 1.The Block diagram of Dielectric Instrument

The Block diagram of Dielectric Instrument is shown in Fig 1. The probe is connected in the feedback of astable
multivibrator configuration. The output frequency is connected to a microcontroller for measurement of frequency.
Based on the frequency of solvents, the dielectric constant is calculated and displayed on LCD. The following
sections explain about the design of dielectric probe, hardware and software for measurement and results.

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF DIELECTRIC PROBE

The parallel plates of dielectric probe are made of brass and the outer body is made of glass. There are two parallel
plates which electrodes. The parallel plates form capacitor while the dielectric probe is immersed in solvent which is
a dielectric medium. The design of dielectric probe is a challenge because the parallel plates have to be as small as
possible in size so that minimum quantity of solvent is used for measuring dielectric constant. Capacitance of the
dielectric probe should be optimized to measure of small variations in dielectric constant of solvents.
The sizes of dielectric plates are 30 mm x 30 mm and is separated by a distance of about 2 mm. The plates of
dielectric probe are machined and polished, two copper leads are taken out from the plates through a teflon holder
on top. The glasses above the plates are sealed so that the volume of the solvent is fixed, which ensures an accurate
measurement. Since length of lead contributes some capacitance with the capacitance of dielectric probe, the length
of leads is kept as short as possible. The shape and size of dielectric probe were optimized so that the value of
dielectric probe capacitance is maximum (measurable range in pF) and less than 30 mL of solvent is sufficient for
measurement of dielectric constant. The diagram of dielectric probe with solvent is shown in Fig 2.

030011-4
 Screws

Electrical Wire for

Capacitor signal

Seal

Glass

Metallic Dielectric Plate

Gap between supporting

capacitor glass

Outlet Hollow
Glass
Daimeter of Hollw
Glaas

FIGURE 2.The Dielectric Probe with solvent

HARDWARE DESIGN
Measurement of capacitance of dielectric probe is based on astable multivibrator configuration. The hardware for
the measurement of the dielectric probe capacitance consists of astable multivibrator, signal conditioning, processing
unit, LCD, keypad and a personal computer.

Astable multivibrator circuit converts the capacitance of dielectric probe into square waveform frequency of
high-stability and accuracy. In astable multivibrator configuration, the capacitance of dielectric probe and an
external fixed resistance form an RC oscillator. The resistance of astable multivibrator is optimized and fixed for
required range of measurement of dielectric constant of solvent. Hence the change of capacitance of dielectric probe
is inversely proportional to the change of square wave frequency.

The frequency output from astable multivibrator circuit is fed to signal conditioning. The signal conditioning
circuit the output of astable multivibrator so that it can interface to the microcontroller for counting frequency output
from astable multivibrator.

The square wave frequency was counted by microcontroller and converted into dielectric constant of a solvent by
using suitable algebraic equation. The microcontroller measures the frequency, converts the frequency into dielectric
constant by using suitable algebraic equation. The measured dielectric constant of solvent is displayed in LCD and is
sent to PC through RS-232 for collecting the data for post analysis. The ccircuit diagram of dielectric instrument
with probe is shown in Fig 3.

030011-5
 VDD
VCC2

Microcontroller
R5 SN7414 VCC2 LCD
O/P
1 14 I/P 24 bit
2 13 counter
3 12
4 11
Opto
5 10 Isolator
6 9
7 8
Gate
Period LAN
AGND2
DGND
R

VCC1
C1
VCC2

LF357
CA3140
7
1

7
5
3 R1 R4
+
6 3
+
2 6
-
2
-
4
5

4
8
1
R2
C2

Dielectric Probe
Capacitance

R3

Dielectric Probe
with solvent -

FIGURE 3.The Circuit Diagram of Dielectric Instrument with probe

SOFTWARE
The code in C language has been developed for counting the square pulses of astable multivibrator for the
measurement of the capacitance of dielectric probe in terms of dielectric constant of solvents. The code was burned
on microcontroller and tested with standard frequency. The code for the measurement of capacitance of dielectric
probe has been developed and converted the dielectric constant measurement using suitable algebraic equation. The
code has been also developed to communicate to PC through LAN for data collection and post analysis.
The data acquisition software was developed. The local area network was configured and data was collected in
PC through LAN. The software is having various features to analyse the data.

030011-6
 EXPERIMENTS
The hardware was calibrated with various standard solvents for measurement of dielectric constant in calibration
mode. After calibration of instrument, the dielectric constants of solvents are measured in measurement mode. The
dielectric constants of various known solvents were measured and data were comparable with the literature values.
The dielectric constant for various synthesised dialkylalkyl and dialkylhydrogen phosphonates extractants were
estimated.

RESULTS
The hardware was calibrated with ethyl alcohol (24.5) and methyl alcohol (32). The experiments were conducted
with various known solvents to validate the hardware & software for the measurement of dielectric constant of
solvents. The dielectric constants of synthesized solvents are tabulated in Table.1.

TABLE 1. Dielectric Constant of Synthesized Solvents ,

S. No. Solvent Capacitance of Dielectric Dielectric Constant

(pF) Constant (ε) (ε) Measured by
expected value Dielectric
Instrument
1 Toluene 178.5 2.4 2.3

2 Di-iso-amyl-hydrogen 205.6 * 5.09

phosphonate (DiAHP)
3 Di-iso-butyl-iso-butyl 208.1 * 5.3
phosphonate DiBiBP
4 Tri-n-butyl phosphate 228.9 8.1 7.76
(TBP)
5 Di-iso-buyl-hydrogen 261.9 * 11.38
phosphonate
(DiBHP)
6 Isopropyl alcohol 300.5 17.9 17.35

7 Ethanol 350.8 24.5 24.32

* data not available

CONCLUSIONS
An indigenous dielectric probe was developed for measuring the dielectric constant of solvents for use in
actinide separations. The size and shape of dielectric probe is optimized for minimum volume required to measure
the dielectric constant of solvent. The instrumentation for the measurement of capacitance dielectric probe for
various solvents has been developed. The calibration of instrument was carried out with standard solvents. The
experiments were carried out for the estimation of dielectric constant for synthesized solvents.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors are thankful to Dr. N. Sivaraman, Head, SCSS/FCD/MC&MFCG for his valuable inputs and
guidance during this work. The authors are also thankful to Shri. R. Parthasarathy, former Head,
CIS/CFD/MC&MFCG who has initiated this work.

030011-7
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030011-9