A new, low-cost potentiostat for environmental measurements with an easy-to-use PC interface

Abstract

A potentiostat is an electronic device for investigating the mechanisms of redox reactions and other electrochemical processes. These highly sensitive instruments allow studying the electrochemical properties of a certain analyte in solution. Nowadays, there are many high-end systems on the market that are usually supplied with a dedicated software package. However, there are only few instruments available in the low price segment. Therefore, our goal was to develop "EcoStat" a low-cost, digitally controlled potentiostat, which has several improvements compared to other inexpensive instruments; e.g. lower noise and a more stable output signal due to a digital PI controller. Furthermore, the data acquisition, visualization and filtering are managed by a comfortable, easy-to-use PC interface called "POTCON". Additionally, EcoStat was evaluated with three other commercial potentiostats and showed a good performance compared to high-end instruments.