QCM Operation in Liquids:  An Explanation of Measured Variations in Frequency and Q Factor with Liquid Conductivity

Recently, several reports have shown that when one side of a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) is exposed to a liquid, the parallel (but not the series) resonant frequency is influenced by the conductivity and dielectric constant of the liquid. The effect is still controversial and constitutes a serious complication in many applications of the QCM in liquid environments. One suggestion has been that acoustically induced surface charges couple to charged species in the conducting liquid. To explore this effect, we have measured the parallel and the series mode resonance frequencies, and the corresponding Q factors, for a QCM with one side facing a liquid. These four quantities have all been measured versus liquid conductivity, using a recently developed experimental setup. It allows the simultaneous measurement of the resonant frequency and the Q factor of an oscillating quartz crystal, intermittently disconnected from the driving circuit. Based on these results, a simple model together with an equivalent circuit for a quartz crystal exposed to a liquid is presented. The analysis shows that it is not necessary to infer the existence of surface charges (or other microscopic phenomena such as electrical double layers) to account for the influence of the liquid's electrical properties on the resonant frequency. Our results show that the contacting conductive liquid, in effect, enlarges the electrode area on the liquid side and thereby changes the parallel resonant frequency. By proper design of the QCM measurement, perturbing effects due to the liquid's electrical properties can be circumvented.