Calculation of the Dielectric Properties of Temperate and Tropical Soil Minerals from Ion Polarizabilities using the Clausius–Mosotti Equation

Abstract

Soil dielectric properties are commonly used to estimate soil water content, however, the relative permittivity of common soil minerals is often unknown or estimated to be 5, similar to quartz (4.6). In this study, the Clausius–Mosotti model is used to estimate mineral relative permittivity from atomic polarizability for common soil minerals. Atomic polarizabilities are used to calculate the average mineral polarizability using the oxide additivity rule. Results of these calculations are compared with measurements found in the literature for rock and mineral samples. Predictions correspond well with measurements on single crystals or obtained using the immersion method to determine relative permittivity (better than 10%). The application of this simple calculation technique allows estimates of relative permittivity to be obtained for minerals for which it is difficult to measure relative permittivity directly, such as soil clay minerals.