Electroanalytical instrumentation—how it all started: history of electrochemical instrumentation

Abstract

This review is a historic collection of old electrochemical and electroanalytical instruments, mostly concentrated on polarographs, potentiostats, pH meters, and titrators designed and commercially available from the 1920s to 1970s. The review briefly explains their operation and shows their photos. It is addressed to electrochemists who want to know what kind of instruments was used by previous generations of scientists and how the progress in electronics brought the instruments from very primitive to more sophisticated devices, still being far from the presently used computerized electrochemical analyzers. This review has a more educational aim rather than scientific in the present definition of being “scientific.” The collected references allow interested readers to find more scientific information on the electronic circuits used in the highlighted instruments, on the instruments operation and applications. Graphical Abstract: (Figure presented.)