A temperature compensated dielectric test cell for accurately measuring the complex permittivity of liquids

A measurement of the complex permittivity, ε_r, of a liquid can give valuable information about the molecular polarizability and dielectric losses. This can be obtained by means of an impedance measurement using a parallel plate test cell. However, highly accurate and precise measurements are challenging, in particular when measuring as a function of temperature. Thermal expansion affects the geometry of a test cell and thus the measured capacitance from which ε_r is calculated. In this paper, a broadband four-terminal dielectric test cell is presented that is insensitive to temperature fluctuations. This was achieved by means of a cell geometry exploiting the thermal expansion coefficient of different materials. Experimental measurements on the manufactured cell yielded a stable capacitance of 35.322 ± 0.001 pF across 20 °C-90 °C. The capacitance stayed within ±0.01 pF over multiple experimental cycles of cleaning and assembly. A finite element modeling showed a theoretical accuracy in measuring ε_r better than 99.995%. The measured ε_r values for a number of standard liquids showed an agreement of 99.7% compared to literature values.