Electroacoustic phenomena

Electroacoustic phenomena arise when ultrasound propagates through a fluid containing ions. The associated particle motion generates electric signals because ions have electric charge. This coupling between ultrasound and electric field is called electroacoustic phenomena. The fluid might be a simple Newtonian liquid, or complex heterogeneous dispersion, emulsion or even a porous body. There are several different electroacoustic effects depending on the nature of the fluid.

Historically, the IVI was the first known electroacoustic effect. It was predicted by Debye in 1933.

The streaming vibration current was experimentally observed in 1948 by Williams. A theoretical model was developed some 30 years later by Dukhin and others. This effect opens another possibility for characterizing the electric properties of the surfaces in porous bodies. A similar effect can be observed at a non-porous surface, when sound is bounced off at an oblique angle. The incident and reflected waves superimpose to cause oscillatory fluid motion in the plane of the interface, thereby generating an AC streaming current at the frequency of the sound waves.

The electrical double layer can be regarded as behaving like a parallel plate capacitor with a compressible dielectric filling. When sound waves induce a local pressure variation, the spacing of the plates varies at the frequency of the excitation, generating an AC displacement current normal to the interface. For practical reasons this is most readily observed at a conducting surface. It is therefore possible to use an electrode immersed in a conducting electrolyte as a microphone, or indeed as a loudspeaker when the effect is applied in reverse.

Colloid vibration potential measures the AC potential difference generated between two identical relaxed electrodes, placed in the dispersion, if the latter is subjected to an ultrasonic field. When a sound wave travels through a colloidal suspension of particles whose density differs from that of the surrounding medium, inertial forces induced by the vibration of the suspension give rise to a motion of the charged particles relative to the liquid, causing an alternating electromotive force. The manifestations of this electromotive force may be measured, depending on the relation between the impedance of the suspension and that of the measuring instrument, either as colloid vibration potential or as colloid vibration current.

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