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Updated: May 1, 2026

Dielectric RheoSANS — Simultaneous Interrogation of Impedance, Rheology and Small Angle Neutron Scattering of Complex Fluids
Published on: April 10, 2017
A differential dielectric spectroscopy setup to measure the electric dipole moment and net charge of colloidal
R J Kortschot1, I A Bakelaar1, B H Erné1
1Van 't Hoff Laboratory for Physical and Colloid Chemistry, Debye Institute for Nanomaterials Science, Utrecht University, Padualaan 8, 3584 CH Utrecht, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
A sensitive dielectric spectroscopy setup is built to measure the response of nanoparticles dispersed in a liquid to an alternating electric field over a frequency range from 10(-2) to 10(7) Hz. The measured complex permittivity spectrum records both the rotational dynamics due to a permanent electric dipole moment and the translational dynamics due to net charges. The setup consists of a half-transparent capacitor connected in a bridge circuit, which is balanced on pure solvent only, using a software-controlled compensating voltage. In this way, the measured signal is dominated by the contributions of the nanoparticles rather than by the solvent. We demonstrate the performance of the setup with measurements on a dispersion of colloidal CdSe quantum dots in the apolar liquid decalin.
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