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Dielectric and electrical properties of coconut water and distilled water in the
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Article in Ionics · July 2015

DOI: 10.1007/s11581-015-1506-z

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Dielectric and electrical properties of
coconut water and distilled water in
the frequency range 20 Hz to 2 MHz at
different temperatures

Nirali S. Shah, Poyani S. Shah &

V. A. Rana

Ionics
International Journal of Ionics The
Science and Technology of Ionic Motion

ISSN 0947-7047
Volume 21
Number 12

Ionics (2015) 21:3217-3222

DOI 10.1007/s11581-015-1506-z

1 23
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 Author's personal copy
Ionics (2015) 21:3217–3222
DOI 10.1007/s11581-015-1506-z
ORIGINAL PAPER
Dielectric and electrical properties of coconut water and distilled
water in the frequency range 20 Hz to 2 MHz
at different temperatures
Nirali S. Shah 1 & Poyani S. Shah 1 & V. A. Rana 1
Received: 12 July 2014 / Revised: 24 June 2015 / Accepted: 11 July 2015 / Published online: 24 July 2015
# Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015
Abstract The complex relative dielectric function ε*(ω)=ε′−
jε″ of coconut water and distilled water in the frequency range
20 Hz to 2 MHz at different temperatures (303 to 333 K) were
measured using a precision LCR meter. The electrical/
dielectric properties of the liquid samples were represented
in terms of complex relative dielectric function ε*(ω), complex
ac conductivity σ*(ω), and complex impedance Z*(ω). All of
these presentations were used to explore various processes
contributed in the electrical/dielectric properties of the coco-
nut water and distilled water.
Keywords Precision LCR meter . Complex permittivity .
Complex impedance . Coconut water
Introduction
Water (H2O) which exists in nature in any one of the three
states: solid, liquid, and gaseous, is considered as the most
abundant compound on earth’s surface, because it covers
about 70 % of the planet. At room temperature, it is a tasteless
and odorless liquid, nearly colorless with a hint of blue. Due to
its atomic and molecular properties, it is an excellent solvent
for many substances [1] and commonly known as Bthe uni-
versal solvent.^ Because of this, water in nature and in use is
rarely pure and some of its properties may vary slightly from
those of the pure substance.
* V. A. Rana
ranava2001@yahoo.com
1
Department of Physics, School of Sciences, Gujarat University,
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Coconut water is an electrolyte (ionic mineral) and has
content similar to human plasma and is one of the world’s
most versatile natural products. It has a unique chemical com-
position of sugars, vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and phy-
tohormones. Coconut water (coconut liquid endosperm) has
many applications: it is a popular natural sports drink for oral
rehydration, it provides many healing nutritional properties
and beneficial for health, and it is a refreshing drink.
The confirmation of the water structure with varying envi-
ronmental conditions is one of the most interesting and chal-
lenging subjects in a variety of scientific fields, i.e., chemistry,
physics, biology, and civil engineering. From the beginning,
the dielectric measurements [1–8] have proved to be a pow-
erful method to study the molecular structure of water. Due to
the recent advancements in precision dielectric constant and
relaxation measurement techniques, dielectric measurements
have proven a powerful tool for investigation of the dielectric
properties of different polar liquids [8–16]. Literature survey
suggests that coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) water is widely
studied in view of its chemical composition and biological
properties [17], but its dielectric properties are not studied
much. Recently, Franco et al. [18] studied the dielectric prop-
erties and electrical conductivity, in view of continuous mi-
crowave processing of green coconut water, at temperatures
between 0 and 90 °C and frequency between 500 and
3000 MHz. In this paper, we present the dielectric spectro-
scopic data taken over the frequency range 20 Hz to 2 MHz
of coconut water and distilled water under the varying condi-
tions of temperature. The objective is to study the electrical/
dielectric properties of coconut water and distilled water in
terms of complex relative dielectric function ε*(ω), complex
ac conductivity σ*(ω), and complex impedance Z*(ω) and to
explore various processes contributed in the electrical/
dielectric properties of the coconut water and distilled
water.
 Author's personal copy
3218 Ionics (2015) 21:3217–3222

Fig. 1 Plots of a dielectric

constant (ε′) and b dielectric loss
(ε″) against log f for coconut
water at different temperatures

Materials and methods temperature rage 303–333 K, and the temperature was con-
trolled by a constant temperature water bath (MIC Fourtech).
Tender coconuts were purchased from a local super market.
The samples were stored in a refrigerator prior to use in the
experiments. Coconut water was poured into an airtight glass
Results and discussion
bottle and was used for the measurements. The distilled water
was procured from BHigh Purity Laboratory Chemicals^,
Figure 1 shows the frequency-dependent spectra of the real
Mumbai. The complex relative dielectric function ε*(ω) of
and imaginary parts of the complex dielectric function ε* of
distilled water and coconut water was determined by using
coconut water at 303, 313, 323, and 333 K temperatures. From
Agilent E4980A precision LCR meter. A four-terminal liquid
Fig. 1a, it can be seen that the dielectric constant for coconut
dielectric test fixture (Agilent 16452 A) was used for capaci-
water is high in the low-frequency region and decreases rap-
tance and resistance measurement in the frequency range
idly with the increase in frequency up to about 70 KHz, and
20 Hz to 2 MHz. The capacitance and parallel resistance of
then after, dielectric constant decreases slowly. Tender coco-
the liquid dielectric test fixture without and with samples were
nut water contains most of the minerals such as potassium,
measured. The test fixture correction coefficient was also con-
sodium, calcium, phosphorous, iron, copper, sulphur, and
sidered to cancel the effect of stray capacitance during the
chlorides [17]. Tender coconut water being rich in dissolved
evaluation of the value of the complex dielectric function.
free ions forms a conductive system. Under the influence of an
The complex dielectric function ε*(ω) of the materials is de-
electric field, the ions present in the coconut water tend to
termined using Eq. (1) [19]
move towards the electrode/sample interface, forming ionic
 
Cp 1 double layers at the interface. These double layers give rise
ε* ðωÞ ¼ ε′ −jε′′ ¼ α −j ð1Þ to large capacitances in series to the conducting bulk of the
C 0 ωC 0 RP
sample. This exhibits itself in high apparent dielectric constant
Where ω=2πf is the angular frequency, Cp is the capaci- [20]; the phenomenon is known as electrode polarization (EP).
tance of the test fixture with sample, C0 is the capacitance of Decrease in dielectric constant value with increase in frequen-
the test fixture without sample, Rp is the parallel resistance of cy can be justified by the decreased ability of the oscillating
the test fixture with sample, and α is the correction coefficient ions in accompanying the increasing frequency-alternating
of the cell. The measurements were made at over the fields. Dielectric constant values are found to increase with

Fig. 2 Plots of a dielectric

constant (ε′) and b dielectric loss (a) (b)
(ε″) against log f for distilled
water at different temperatures
 Author's personal copy
Ionics (2015) 21:3217–3222 3219

Table 1 Values of dielectric constant and dielectric loss of coconut water and distilled water at different frequencies at 303 K

Frequency (Hz) Coconut water Distilled water

Dielectric constant (ε′) Dielectric loss (ε″) Dielectric constant (ε′) Dielectric Loss (ε″)

20 3.34*106 2.07*1012 1.02*106 7.47*105

100 2.42*106 6.58*105 4.53*105 4.18*105
1000 1.41*106 5.85*105 4.74*104 1.33*105
10 K 5.65*105 5.45*105 1.03*103 1.66*104
50 K 8.60*104 2.56*105 1.21*102 3.35*103
100 K 2.80*104 1.43*105 8.66*101 1.68*103
500 K 1.77*103 3.07*104 7.45*101 3.36*102
1M 6.12*102 1.55*104 7.41*101 1.68*102
1.5 M 3.51*102 9.82*103 7.40*101 1.06*102
2M 2.82*102 7.81*103 7.40*101 8.42*101

rise in temperature over the entire frequency range of 20 Hz to
2 MHz. With rise in temperature, ionic movement improves;
consequently, the dielectric constant increases.
In the dielectric loss plots of coconut water (Fig. 1b),
four different regions are observed at all the temperatures.
In the frequency range 20 Hz to about 100 Hz, dielectric
loss decreases rapidly with increase in frequency, then it
decreases at the slower rate up to around 1000 Hz; beyond
this, frequency loss becomes almost independent of fre-
quency; above 10 KHz, it again decreases systematically
reaching to a constant level at around 1 MHz. An enor-
mously large value of dielectric loss at the low frequency
again confirms the presence of free charge carriers in the
coconut water. Losses due to ionic current induced by an
applied electric field increase the dielectric loss. Water
molecules present in the coconut water can autodissociate
forming ion pairs (H+ and OH−). When the temperature is
increased, the number of ions from the separation of mol-
ecules increases. This causes increase in dielectric loss
with increase in temperature.
Figure. 2 shows the frequency-dependent spectra of the real
and imaginary parts of the complex dielectric function ε* of
distilled water at different temperatures. From Fig. 2a, it can
be seen that the dielectric constant for distilled water is high in
the low-frequency region and decreases rapidly with increase
in frequency up to 100 kHz, then after dielectric constant
becomes independent of frequency. The large value of the
dielectric constant in distilled water in the lower frequency
region is again due to the electrode polarization effect. The
EP phenomena occur due to formation of electric double layer
(EDL) capacitances by the free charge (hydrogen ions H+ and
hydroxyl ions OH−) build up at the interface between the bulk
material and the electrode surfaces. Decrease in dielectric con-
stant value with increase in frequency in the low-frequency
regime can be justified by the decreased ability of the oscillat-
ing ions in accompanying the alternating electric field at in-
creasing frequency. Dielectric constant values are found to
increase with increase in temperature over the frequency range
20 Hz to about 0.150 MHz. This kind of increase in dielectric
constant is due to the increase in ionic movement with rise in
temperature. In the frequency range 0.150 to 2 MHz, the di-
electric constant becomes almost independent of the

Table 2 Values of electrode polarization (EP) relaxation frequency fEP

and electrode polarization relaxation time τEP at different temperatures for
distilled water

Temperature (K) tan δ fEP (kHz) τEP

(μs)

303 28.78 37.67 4.22

308 28.82 39.90 3.99
313 28.94 47.42 3.35
318 29.10 56.37 2.82
323 29.30 63.24 2.52
328 29.30 63.24 2.52
Fig. 3 Plot of tan δ against log f for coconut water and distilled water at 333 29.85 79.61 2
different temperatures
 Author's personal copy
3220
(a)
(b)
Fig. 4 Plots of Z″ vs. Z′ for a coconut water and b distilled water at
different temperatures
frequency and it decreases with increase in temperature (inset
of Fig. 2a). Thus, there is an inverse effect of temperature in
the low- and high-frequency regime. Recently, Sherman and
Uribe [1] studied dielectric spectroscopy of water in the fre-
quency range 100 Hz to 1 MHz and observed the inverse
effect of temperature in the low- and high-frequency regime.
Our results are in agreement with their results. According to
Fig. 5 Plot of σ′ and σ″ against log f for coconut water at different
temperatures
Ionics (2015) 21:3217–3222
Fig. 6 Plot of σ′ and σ″ against log f for distilled water at different
temperatures
Sherman and Uribe, the low-frequency process is dominated
by Maxwell-Wagner-Sillars (MWS) phenomenon [21],
whereas, in the high-frequency region, the value of dielectric
constant follows Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics.
Dielectric loss of distilled water (Fig. 2b) decreases system-
atically with frequency over the entire frequency range and
increases with increase in temperature. Dielectric constant and
dielectric loss of the coconut water are higher than that of pure
water at all frequencies and at all temperatures. Dielectric
constant and dielectric loss values at 303 K of the coconut
water and distilled water at some frequency points are reported
in Table 1. This result confirms that the coconut water is richer
in ionic mineral (electrolytes) content than distilled water.
Figure 3 shows the frequency-dependent spectra of tan δ
(=ε″/ε′) at four representative temperatures 303, 313, 323, and
333 K. tan δ spectra has the peak value corresponding to the
EP relaxation frequency fEP, which is used to evaluate the
electrode polarization relaxation time τEP =(2πfEP)− 1 [22].
For distilled water, the electrode polarization relaxation peak
at different temperatures is observed in the frequency range
37.5 to 80 KHz. This relaxation peak is found to shift from
frequency 37.672 to 79.615 KHz as temperature changes from
303 to 333 K. In the case of coconut water, the relaxation peak
seems to lie beyond the 2-MHz frequency. Values of EP re-
laxation frequency fEP and electrode polarization relaxation
Table 3 Values of σdc for coconut water and distilled water at different
temperatures
Temp. (K) σdc (S/m) (coconut water) σdc (S/m) (distilled water)
303 0.7016 0.0092
308 0.7149 0.0098
313 0.7675 0.011
318 0.8021 0.0127
323 0.8699 0.0142
328 0.929 0.0162
333 0.964 0.0176
 Author's personal copy
Ionics (2015) 21:3217–3222 3221

Fig. 7 Plots of log (σ′dc) against (1/T) x 10-3 K -1

(1/T) x 10-3 K -1
temperature−1 for a coconut water (a) (b)
and b distilled water 2.95 3.05 3.15 3.25 3.35 2.95 3.05 3.15 3.25 3.35
0 -1.7

log(σ'dc) (S/m)
log(σ'dc) (S/m)
-0.04 -1.8

-0.08 -1.9

-0.12 -2

-0.16 -2.1

time τEP at different temperatures for distilled water are pre-
sented in Table 2.
The complex impedance plane plots (Z″ vs. Z′) are com-
monly used to separate the bulk material and the electrode
surface polarization phenomena. A common feature of dielec-
trics with dc conductivity is a discontinuity at the electrode/
dielectric interface, which has different polarization properties
than the bulk dielectric material. The frequency-dependent
values of the real-part Z′ and reactive-part Z″ of the complex
impedance Z*(ω) of the materials were evaluated by the
Eq. (2) [22]
Rp
Z * ðωÞ ¼ Z ′ þ jZ ′′ ¼
2 − j
1 þ ωC p Rp 1 þ ωC p Rp
frequency region and a large decrease below 0.25 MHz due
to the EP effect. dc conductivity of the coconut water at all the
temperatures of measurement was determined from the pla-
teau region in the high-frequency region by fitting the exper-
imental data points into a straight line equation. In the case of
distilled water (Fig. 6), σ′ spectra have σdc plateau in the fre-
quency above the 10 kHz. Determined values of σdc for dis-
tilled water and coconut water at different temperatures are
presented in the Table 3. From the table, it can be seen that
the dc conductivity of distilled water and coconut water in-
creases with the increase in temperature. The variation of elec-
trical conductivity (σdc) with temperature is found to obey the
ωC p Rp 2

2 ð2Þ

Complex impedance plane plots (Z″ against Z′) of coconut

water and distilled water are shown in Fig. 4. The plot of water
consists of a semicircular arc in the high-frequency region
followed by a tail in the low-frequency region, suggesting a
trend for another semicircular arc. The high-frequency semi-
circle is due to the bulk properties of the water. The intercept
of this semicircle with the real axis (Z′) gives the bulk resis-
tance (Rb) of the water. From the plots, the bulk resistance of
the distilled water at different temperatures is evaluated and it
is 27.80, 25.31, 22.67, 19.64, 17.40, 15.27, and 15.28 Ω at
303, 308, 313, 318, 323, 328, and 333 K temperatures, respec-
tively. Bulk resistance of water is found to decrease with in-
crease in temperature. Furthermore, the frequency values cor-
responding to Z″ minimum values in the Z″→Z′ plot separates
the bulk effect and the surface effect [22]. It is interesting to
note that this frequency is found to be exactly the same as the
tan δ peak frequency at corresponding temperatures, as report-
ed in Table 2. In the case of coconut water, part of the arc is
observed.
The frequency-dependent real-part σ′ and imaginary part
σ″ of ac complex conductivity σ*(ω) of coconut water and
distilled water were obtained using Eq. (3) [23]:

σ* ðωÞ ¼ σ′ þ jσ′′ ¼ ωε0 ε′′ þ jωε0 ε′ ð3Þ

Figure 5 shows the frequency dependence of σ′ and σ″ for Fig. 8 Plots of σ″ against σ′ for a coconut water and b distilled water at
coconut water. σ′ spectra have a σdc plateau in the high - different temperatures
 Author's personal copy
3222
exponential relation: σdc =A exp (−Ea/RT), where R is the gas
constant [10]. This is evident by the plots of log σdc against
1/T, which is a straight line as shown in Fig. 7a, b. Using this
exponential relation, activation energy for the intrinsic con-
duction process (Ea) for coconut water and distilled water are
calculated and they are 4.8 and 8.9 KJ/mol, respectively.
The ac conductivity σ*(ω) exhibits the relaxation behavior
of Debye-type in both the distilled water and coconut water, as
depicted in Fig. 8a, b. In the case of coconut water, the dipolar
polarization process is masked by the ionic conduction pro-
cess due to which a single semicircular arc in the studied
frequency range is observed. However, in case of distilled
water, a clear separation of ionic conduction process and di-
polar polarization mechanism is observed in the considered
frequency range of measurement. The semicircular arc in the
low-frequency region suggests the ionic relaxation process,
and the high-frequency tail indicates the dipolar polarization
process in the distilled water.
Conclusion
The dielectric and electrical properties and relaxation process-
es of coconut water and distilled water were investigated in the
20 Hz to 2 MHz frequency range. For distilled water, electrode
polarization relaxation peak is observed in the studied fre-
quency range. In the case of coconut water, the relaxation peak
seems to lie beyond 2 MHz. In the case of pure water, the
relaxation peak is found to shift from frequency 37.672 to
79.615 KHz as temperature changes from 303 to 333 K. The
comparative analysis of the various dielectric/electrical quan-
tity spectra confirms that the behavior of ionic conduction and
EDL dynamics is governed by the structural and dynamic
behavior of coconut water and distilled water. In the case of
distilled water, an inverse effect of temperature in the low- and
high-frequency regime was observed. Temperature depen-
dence of the static electrical conductivity is found to exhibit
Arrhenius behavior. This type of study can be helpful in un-
derstanding the interfacial process and also to evaluate com-
ponent contributions in the liquid food products and their
interactions.
Acknowledgments Experimental facilities developed using financial
assistance provided by Department of Sciences and Technology (DST),
New Delhi, through the DST-FIST (Level- I) project (SR/FST/PSI-001/
2006) have been utilized to carry out this work, and it is gratefully ac-
knowledged. Financial assistance provided by DRS-SAP [No. F.530/10/
DRS/2010 (SAP-I)] is also gratefully acknowledged. Authors are thank-
ful to Prof. P.N. Gajjar, Head, Department of Physics, School of Sciences,
Gujarat University, Ahmedabad, for his constant encouragement.
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Ionics (2015) 21:3217–3222
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