Detection of ethanol in water by electrical impedance spectroscopy and resonant perturbation method

TL;DR

This paper presents two simple, low-cost sensors—interdigitated electrodes and a double split ring resonator—for detecting ethanol in water using impedance and resonance methods, achieving high sensitivity and low detection limits.

Contribution

It introduces novel sensor designs for ethanol detection in water, demonstrating their effectiveness and low detection limits in a portable, cost-effective manner.

Findings

EIS sensor enables broadband ethanol evaluation.

Resonant cavity sensor achieves detection limit of 0.2v/v%.

Both sensors are efficient for low ethanol concentrations.

Abstract

Development of highly sensitive, portable and low-cost sensors for the evaluation of ethanol content in liquid is particularly important in several process monitoring, from food to pharmaceutical industry. In this respect, here we report on the design, fabrication and performances of two simple electrical devices, namely interdigitated (ID) electrodes and complementary double split ring resonator (CDSRR), for the detection of ethanol in water though impedance and perturbation resonance methods, respectively. Both sensors resulted to be efficient for detection of low amount of ethanol in water, in particular EIS gives possibility to perform broadband evaluation of ethanol concentration in solution, and the employment of resonant cavities allows to achieve very low limit of detection of 0.2v/v%.