Evaluation of the dielectric properties of biodiesel fuels produced from different vegetable oil feedstocks through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy

Biodiesel fuels were prepared from different vegetable oil sources (canola, soybean, sunflower, and corn) and studied through electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The dielectric constant from these biofuels evidenced no important dependence on feedstock, suggesting basically no change in fuels' polarity from varying the raw materials. In a different way, huge variations of the electrical resistivity and relaxation frequency were found when comparing among the studied biodiesels. Our findings demonstrate that these variations are closely associated with changes in the biodiesel viscosity, which is known to modulate charge mobility and was feedstock dependent. Accordingly, the impedance spectroscopy is here revealed to be a sensitive, alternative and reliable analytical approach for distinguishing among different feedstock-related biodiesels and monitoring certain biofuels' properties, like viscosity and interrelated parameters, usually connected with fatty acid structural profiles in biodiesel fuels. •Biodiesels from four different vegetable oils were studied by impedance spectroscopy.•The polarizability-related dielectric constant was independent on biofuel feedstock.•In contrast, resistivity and relaxation frequency were strongly feedstock dependent.•Undeniable correlations linking resistivity and frequency to viscosity are presented.•Weighing the properties mentioned just above may help distinguishing biofuel sources.