A soil moisture sensor includes a capacitive probe configured to be inserted into soil, a series RLC circuit electrically coupled to the capacitive probe, a microcontroller configured to determine the capacitance value of the soil and determine the moisture content of the soil from the capacitance value of the soil.

A method of detecting the extent of degradation of an oil is provided. The method may comprise the steps of analyzing samples of the oil when fresh and when used; calculating electrochemical property data of the fresh and used engine oil; determining whether the electrochemical property data correlates with the degradation marker data; and using the electrochemical property to detect the extent of degradation of the oil of a used sample of the oil. The method may be used for any suitable oil, including mineral oil, synthetic oil and blends (a.k.a. semi-synthetic). The method can be used to maximize oil usage by monitoring used oil quality over time so that the oil is replaced when necessary and not before. The method can also identify trends in oil degradation.

A wear sensor comprising: an insulating substrate having a top surface and a bottom surface; a conductive electrode formed on said top surface of said insulating substrate; an insulating wear lining material having a first side secured to said top surface of said insulating substrate and conductive electrode, an opposite second side that will be worn down by relative motion between the wear sensor and a moving component; and one or more contact points where the electrical properties between the electrode and the moving component can be measured.

A system may include a controller configured to cause a capacitance probe to subject a material to a first electric signal having a first frequency and determine a first capacitance of the material at the first frequency. The controller is configured to cause the capacitance probe to subject the material to a second electric signal at a second frequency and determine a second capacitance of the material at the second frequency. The material includes at least a first constituent phase and a second constituent phase. The first constituent phase and the second constituent phase have substantially similar dielectric constants at the first frequency and substantially different dielectric constants at the second frequency. The controller is further configured to determine a porosity of the material based on the first capacitance and determine a relative phase composition of the first constituent phase and the second constituent phase based on the second capacitance.

A device for detecting a chemical species, including a Geiger-mode avalanche diode, which includes a body of semiconductor material delimited by a front surface. The semiconductor body includes: a cathode region having a first type of conductivity, which forms the front surface; and an anode region having a second type of conductivity, which extends in the cathode region starting from the front surface. The detection device further includes: a sensitive structure arranged on the anode region and including at least one sensitive region, which has an electrical permittivity that depends upon the concentration of the chemical species; and a resistive region, arranged on the sensitive structure and electrically coupled to the anode region.

A surface wettability measurement method for determining the surface wettability of a surface for operations that require the removal of oil-based fluid such as cementing operations in an oil/gas environment. Time domain reflectometry (TDR) measurements are used to measure the wettability in a wellbore downhole during operations or in a lab environment when fluid flow is present. A surface wettability measurement system for determining the surface wettability of a surface located either in a wellbore downhole or in a laboratory setting using time domain reflectometry for measurements during operations when fluid flow is present.

Disclosed are a chemi-capacitive sensor using a nanomaterial and a method of manufacturing the same. The chemi-capacitive sensor includes a lower electrode including a conductor, an insulation part formed on the lower electrode and including an insulator, an upper electrode disposed on the insulation part and including a first electrode and a second electrode spaced apart from the first electrode, and a detection part disposed on the first electrode, the second electrode, and the insulation part between the first electrode and the second electrode and including at least one selected from the group consisting of a carbon nanomaterial and a metal-oxide-coated carbon nanomaterial. The chemi-capacitive sensor of the present invention is effective at selectively analyzing gas analytes.

The invention pertains to an apparatus and a method for determining a dielectric property of a first substance in a composition in a non-invasive manner. The composition includes at least the first substance to be measured and a second substance. The method uses and apparatus includes a capacitor for creating a field into which the composition can be introduced at least in part, where the capacitor is part of an oscillator circuit, and the oscillator circuit is coupled to a device for determining the resonance frequency of the oscillator circuit. The capacitor includes a layer of a non-conducting material such that the composition, when introduced at least in part into the field of the capacitor, does not come into an electrical contact with the electrodes of the capacitor.

An oil degradation meter and a method for evaluating oil degradation are provided, in which a user is enabled to arbitrarily set a degradation of oil/fat using an acid value (AV value) as an index, and capable of learning a replacement time of oil/fat easily with a stable reproducibility, even in a case where a condition such as a moisture amount in food (deep-fried food) is different. In a setup procedure, an acid value (AV.sub.0) of unused oil/fat is set to 0, a dielectric constant (D.sub.0) at that time is measured and recorded, a dielectric constant (D.sub.100) of oil/fat at a replacement time under a specific oil/fat usage condition is measured, and it is recorded along with an acid value (AV.sub.100) at that time, and in a measurement procedure, a dielectric constant (D.sub.n) of the sample oil/fat is measured, and an acid value (AV.sub.n) of said sample oil/fat is calculated based on the dielectric constants (D.sub.0, D.sub.100) and the acid value (AV.sub.100) recorded in said setup procedure, according to a calculation formula of [AV.sub.n=AV.sub.100×{(D.sub.n−D.sub.0)/(D.sub.100−D.sub.0)}].

The present disclosure provides a method and system for detecting and controlling the long-range quantum coherence of molecular interactions, e.g., hydrogen bonds, with an electrical current or electromagnetic field, e.g., in a low end of radio frequency range at room temperature. The resonant frequencies of molecular interactions such as hydrogen bonds may be detected and the long-range quantum coherence of the molecular interactions such as hydrogen bonds may be controlled with electrical current or electromagnetic fields.