Direct method for shear moduli calculation from quartz crystal resonator measurements

Quartz crystal resonator measurements can be used for polymer material characterization. The non-gravimetric behavior of these resonators, i.e. the dependence of the electrical response of polymer coated quartz resonators on the polymer shear modulus, is exploited for the determination of viscoelastic material properties of the coating. Previously reported methods applied an electrical admittance analysis together with difficult and time-consuming data fit procedures to calculate the film shear modulus. This contribution presents a new direct method for the determination of complex shear moduli of polymer films from quartz crystal resonator measurements which allows a fast calculation of the shear parameters