Dielectric probes

Martinez, A. and Byrnes, A. The HP85070A dielectric probe kit tool sensitivity, sample preparation, and sampling procedures. 

Hewlett Packard 1991. Dielectric Probe Kit 85070A Hewlett Packard Corp. Palo Alto, CA. 

In conclusion, dielectric measurements seem to be insensitive to gelation. This can be explained by the fact that the dielectric probes, i.e., the ions which are practically always present in the reactive medium, give information only about local viscosities and not the macroscopic changes such as the viscosity near gelation. Nevertheless, dielectric measurements can be used to monitor processing in the pregel region. 

In the case of nonpolar polymers such as polyolefins, attempts have been made to perform DS by doping the polymer with additives having a large dipole moment (so-called dielectric probes) [93]. Here, as a typical example, studies on atactic polypropylene (aPP), doped with 4,4 -(N,N-dibutylamino)-( )-nitrostilbene (DEANS see Chart 1.7) of dipole moment = 8 Debye, is addressed [94]. Plots of e" versus temperature for both doped and undoped aPP are shown in Figure 1.12. 

Wang, Y., Chen, W.-C. Dielectric probing of relaxation behaviors in pmma/organoelay nanoeomposites effect of organic modification, composite interfaces. Compos. Interfaces 17, 803 (2010)... 

By variation of ceramic volume fraction and selection of the best fitting PZT material we can as well adjust the dielectric constant of the piezocomposite within a wide range. Therefore, we can choose the best piezocomposite material for each probe type to get optimum pulse form and amplitude. 

When the process medium is electrically conductive (dielectric values > 10), the capacitor developed above does not work the iasulatiag material needed between the two conductive plates is lost. The conductive Hquid surrounding the probe acts as a short circuit to the tank wall (second plate of the capacitor). To reestabUsh the dielectric (iasulatiag material), the probe can be iasulated with a nonconductive material such as tetrafluoroethylene (TFE), poly(vinyhdene fluoride) (PVDF), poly(vinyl chloride) (PVC), etc. The capacitor exists between the probe rod, through the thickness of the iasulation (dielectric), to the conductive Hquid which is now acting as the second plate of the capacitor, or ground reference (Fig. 9). 

There are two general weaknesses associated with capacitance systems. First, because it is dependent on a process medium with a stable dielectric, variations in the dielectric can cause instabiUty in the system. Simple alarm appHcations can be caUbrated to negate this effect by cahbrating for the lowest possible dielectric. Multipoint and continuous output appHcations, however, can be drastically affected. This is particularly tme if the dielectric value is less than 10. Secondly, buildup of conductive media on the probe can cause the system to read a higher level than is present. Various circuits have been devised to minimize this problem, but the error cannot be totally eliminated. 

Greater deviations which are occasionally observed between two reference electrodes in a medium are mostly due to stray electric fields or colloid chemical dielectric polarization effects of solid constituents of the medium (e.g., sand [3]) (see Section 3.3.1). Major changes in composition (e.g., in soils) do not lead to noticeable differences of diffusion potentials with reference electrodes in concentrated salt solutions. On the other hand, with simple metal electrodes which are sometimes used as probes for potential controlled rectifiers, certain changes are to be expected through the medium. In these cases the concern is not with reference electrodes, in principle, but metals that have a rest potential which is as constant as possible in the medium concerned. This is usually more constant the more active the metal is, which is the case, for example, for zinc but not stainless steel. 

A Btu meter may be used in the fuel-quality system as an aid in determining turbine system efficiency. A water capacitance probe is used for detection of water in the fuel line. A water-detecting device can be incorporated into the corrosion monitoring system. This monitoring device is based on detection of changes in the dielectric constant of unknown fluid components... 

The dramatic slowing down of molecular motions is seen explicitly in a vast area of different probes of liquid local structures. Slow motion is evident in viscosity, dielectric relaxation, frequency-dependent ionic conductance, and in the speed of crystallization itself. In all cases, the temperature dependence of the generic relaxation time obeys to a reasonable, but not perfect, approximation the empirical Vogel-Fulcher law ... 

Liquid voltaic cells are systems composed of conducting, condensed phases in series, with a thin gap containing gas or liquid dielectric (e.g., decane) situated between two condensed phases. The liquid voltaic cells contain at least one liquid surface [2,15], Due to the presence of a dielectric, special techniques for the investigation of voltaic cells are necessary. Usually, it is the dynamic condenser method, named also the vibrating plate method, the vibrating condenser method, or Kelvin-Zisman probe. In this method, the capacity of the condenser created by the investigated surface and the plate (vibrating plate), is continuously modulated by periodical vibration of the plate. The a.c. output is then amplified, and fed back to the condenser to obtain null-balance operation [49,50]. 

However, the equilibrium of the indicator adsorbed at an interface may also be affected by a lower dielectric constant as compared to bulk water. Therefore, it is better to use instead pH, the interfacial and bulk pK values in Eq. (50). The concept of the use at pH indicators for the evaluation of Ajy is also basis of other methods, like spin-labeled EPR, optical and electrochemical probes [19,70]. The results of the determination of the Aj by means of these methods may be loaded with an error of up to 50mV [19]. For some the potentials determined by these methods, Ajy values are in a good agreement with the electrokinetic (zeta) potentials found using microelectrophoresis [73]. It is proof that, for small systems, there is lack of methods for finding the complete value of A>. 

PPII helix-forming propensities have been measured by Kelly et al. (2001) and A. L. Rucker, M. N. Campbell, and T. P. Creamer (unpublished results). In the simulations the peptide backbone was constrained to be in the PPII conformation, defined as (0,VO = ( — 75 25°, +145 25°), using constraint potentials described previously (Yun and Hermans, 1991 Creamer and Rose, 1994). The AMBER/ OPLS potential (Jorgensen and Tirado-Rives, 1988 Jorgensen and Severance, 1990) was employed at a temperature of 298° K, with solvent treated as a dielectric continuum of s = 78. After an initial equilibration period of 1 x 104 cycles, simulations were run for 2 x 106 cycles. Each cycle consisted of a number of attempted rotations about dihedrals equal to the total number of rotatable bonds in the peptide. Conformations were saved for analysis every 100 cycles. Solvent-accessible surface areas were calculated using the method of Richmond (1984) and a probe of 1.40 A radius. 

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