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org/jchemeduc Technology Report

A Small yet Complete Framework for a Potentiostat, Galvanostat,

and Electrochemical Impedance Spectrometer
Yasuo Matsubara*
Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. 2021, 98, 3362−3370 Read Online

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ABSTRACT: A modern cybernetic potentiostat plays a significant role in

realizing various electrochemical measurements. This technology report
describes a general-purpose, scalable, handheld (10 cm2), yet affordable
hardware−software framework for a potentiostat, galvanostat, and electro-
chemical impedance spectrometer with high capabilities: (1) cyclic
Downloaded via 152.59.11.70 on December 9, 2023 at 02:23:15 (UTC).

voltammetry, square-wave voltammetry, and (potential-step) chronoamper-

ometry as potentiostatic measurements conjugated with iR compensation
and rotating-disk electrode apparatus in a wide range of current and voltage
(pA to 0.1 A and ±12 V); (2) chronopotentiometry (with an arbitrary
current) as a galvanostatic measurement (e.g., Karl Fischer titration); and
(3) electrochemical impedance spectroscopy with a bandwidth of 0.1−1
MHz. Two additional devices derived from the framework were also
demonstrated for fast potential scanning (up to 100 kV/s) and simple
assembling, respectively. The presented framework provides rich teaching materials for chemistry, technology, engineering, and
mathematics (e.g., STEM) education.
KEYWORDS: Upper-Division Undergraduate, Graduate Education/Research, Laboratory Equipment/Apparatus,
Undergraduate Research, Hands-On Learning/Manipulatives, Analytical Chemistry, Electrochemistry, Electrolytic/Galvanic Cells/Potentials

■ INTRODUCTION
Electrochemical education is essential for students to under-
Scheme 1. Generalized Structure of an Electrochemical
Device (for Electrochemical Cells) Consisting of Three
Components: View, Controller, and Core Analog Circuita
stand the electrical effects related to interfacial chemistries,
which are essential phenomena in various redox-relevant devices
for the development of a sustainable society (e.g., dye-sensitized
solar cells, rechargeable batteries, fuel cells, and electrolyzers),
metabolism in biological cells (e.g., mitochondria), and signal
transmission in nervous systems.1 Therefore, educational
content spans a wide range of chemical (e.g., heterogeneous
redox reactions in the electrical double layer), technological
(e.g., voltammetry), engineering (of devices), and mathematical
(e.g., diffusion on the surface of an electrode described by Fick’s
law) topics. To help students understand these interrelated and
complex topics, electrochemical experiments in laboratory a
The acronyms “PS”, “Osc”, “AWG”, and “DIO” denote a power
classes play a significant role since experiments can visualize supply, an oscilloscope, an arbitrary waveform generator, and a digital
the electrical effect(s) on a material of interest (e.g., Faradaic input/output, respectively.
efficiency for the evolution of continuous bubbles of hydrogen
gas from an electrode). On this basis, various groups have
reported potentiostats, galvanostats, and/or electrochemical
impedance spectrometers (EIS) as task-specific devices for their
respective (educational) topics.2−29 These structures of devices Received: March 6, 2021
are generalized to a system consisting of three functionalities, a Revised: July 22, 2021
view, a controller, and core analog circuit(s), as depicted in Published: September 3, 2021
Scheme 1, where the view represents a graphical user interface
prepared by programming language(s), the analog circuit
represents an electrical interface converting chemical re-
Published 2021 by American Chemical
Society and Division of Chemical https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00228
Education, Inc. 3362 J. Chem. Educ. 2021, 98, 3362−3370
Journal of Chemical Education pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc Technology Report

Figure 1. (a) Schematic diagram of the hardware−software framework for potentiostat (P/S), galvanostat (G/S), and EIS. (b, c) Photographs of the
lower and upper layers, respectively, in the actual assembled device with two layers, where the upper layer is stacked on the lower layer through a 6-lead
socket and pin (J). The symbols R, W, S, and C represent terminals for reference, working, sensing, and counter electrodes, respectively.

sponse(s) from an electrochemical cell of interest to the form of
electrical response(s), and the controller, which is typically a
general-purpose microprocessor with peripheral task-specific
integrated circuits, mediates between the view and analog
circuit(s). The balance between functionality, capability, and
cost of a device depends on how the three functionalities are
purposefully configured. Accordingly, these reported devices are
categorized into four classes: (1) wireless electrochemical
detector as an IoT device;6,8,11,19,22,26,28 (2) stand-alone device
not requiring an external computer;3,14,18,20,25,29 (3) single-chip
to miniaturize a device;4,13,24,28 and (4) electric-topologically
multifunctional device as general-purpose equipment in a
laboratory10,19,27 (see the Supporting Information for the
detailed classification of low-cost (<1000 USD) electrochemical
devices reported previously). Among these categories, the
multifunctional device can play a vital role for students
investigating various dimensions of a subject of interest and
understand the subject multidirectionally. However, no open-
sourced device with a complete set of functionalities and
capabilities has been reported for undergraduate and graduate
3363
students to conduct various consecutive electroanalytical
measurements.
In this technology report, a general-purpose, scalable,
handheld, yet affordable hardware−software framework is
described, i.e., a unified electrical analog circuit on a printed
circuit board for potentiostat, galvanostat, and EIS with an open-
sourced and object-oriented software interface. The framework
is based on recent advances in IoT technology over the past two
decades30 and on two historically important works: (1) analog
circuit design of a 3-electrode potentiostat using an operational
amplifier in 195831−33 and (2) cybernetic instrumentation using
a digital microcomputer in 1982.34,35 The actual device using the
framework is the first to satisfy four important requirements for
performing potentiostatic, galvanostatic, and impedance meas-
urements in a laboratory class and/or a research laboratory: (1)
it must serve various electroanalytical techniques with a wide
range of current sensitivity and voltage control; (2) it must be
small and operable by a student (it is even good if it can be
operable over the internet); (3) it must be inexpensive as an
instrument; and (4) the system configuration must be scalable
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J. Chem. Educ. 2021, 98, 3362−3370
Journal of Chemical Education
and easily understood by students. The device enables chemistry
educators to have students implement various electrochemical
experiments in laboratory classes or to demonstrate various
electrochemical phenomena to students in normal classes.
■
CONFIGURATION OF APPARATUS
Figure 1 shows the schematic diagram (Figure 1a) and
photograph (Figure 1b,c) of the actual assembled device
developed in this study (see the Supporting Information for
the complete circuit, a bill of materials, and the assembling
procedure). The device consists of two stacked layers with the
core analog circuit and the voltage regulator (±12 V) placed at
the lower and upper layers, respectively. In general, a
potentiostat apparatus consists of a waveform generator, a
circuit for potentiostat, an oscilloscope, and a power supply. All
functionalities except the essential potentiostat part are
delegated to a multifunctional digital oscilloscope36 (Analog
Discovery 2, Digilent as denoted by AD in Figure 1a) that is
connected directly (or over the Internet by interfacing
functionalities of the oscilloscope to a web service37) to a
personal computer where software (SW) operates these
functionalities, including the potentiostat part. Thus, the circuit
for the essential potentiostat part in Figure 1 is allowed to be
simple, as represented in an electrochemistry textbook and
downsized enough to fit the inside of a small Faraday cage (see
the Supporting Information for the cage designed in this study).
The geometry of the schematic circuit (Figure 1a) is in
accordance with that of the actual assembled circuit (Figure 1b)
to enhance the pedagogical effect. Although the actual circuit
seems complex at first glance because it unifies three circuits for
potentiostat, galvanostat, and EIS,38−42 the respective circuit is
switched to be activated exclusively by mechanical relays (S1−
S4) during the operation. Figure 1a shows a combination of
relays to switch to the circuit topology for a potentiostat
consisting of three electrodes, as shown in Figure 2a. This circuit
is classified as a typical adder potentiostat where the operational
amplifier (OP2−3 in Figure 1a) keeps points P2 and 3 (P3 is
connected to the working electrode, W) at virtual ground, which
Figure 2. Circuit topologies for (a) potentiostat (with a capacitor, Cf)
and EIS (without Cf) and (b) galvanostat in the device. The symbols R,
W, S, and C correspond to those shown in Figure 1.
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc Technology Report
is an essential condition for the operation. When the circuit
(Figure 1a) works as a galvanostat, another circuit topology is
activated, as shown in Figure 2b, by a combination of relay
switches. In this topology, a sensing electrode (S) is used as the
fourth electrode, which senses a potential (referring to the
reference electrode, R) of the solution electrolyzed between
working (W) and counter (C) electrodes. The galvanostat
circuit is useful, for example, in Karl Fischer titration using
chronopotentiometry (see the Supporting Information for the
actual experiment). The voltage regulator unit (VR in Figure 1c,
the upper layer in the device) converts ±5 V (supplied from the
oscilloscope) into ±12 V with an external +5 V power-supply
unit using a wall socket (not shown), which is sufficient to
conduct various electrochemical experiments in the laboratory
classes. This conversion can be switched off by SW (in Figure
1c) for demonstrations that do not require such a voltage range,
perhaps in normal classes where a wall socket may not be
available. The output terminal, AWG(W2), is designed to
control an external rotating-disk electrode (RDE) apparatus
performing (fully automatic) hydrodynamic measurements with
or without gas purging (see the Supporting Information for the
example). These analog circuits are controlled by the software
Voltammogrammer,43 in a personal computer using the digital
oscilloscope (AD). This open-source software is written in the
C# programming language and provides a modern graphical
user interface for students to conduct various electrochemical
techniques and intuitively organize acquired data (see Figures 3,
4, and 5). Alternatively, a LabView program is also available so
that an IoT device (e.g., Raspberry Pi) can be used as a computer
controlling the device (see the Supporting Information for
details; this program is also useful to graphically understand how
the device works with the software). All electronic components
used in the device are commercially available and cost a total of
410 USD, including the digital oscilloscope. The cost is
substantially lower than those of typical commercially equivalent
devices (at least 10,000 USD). Although the device takes
approximately 8 h to assemble, the simplified version of the
device is also available that remedies this issue with little loss of
the original functionalities (see the Supporting Information for
details; the time is abated to 2 h).
Although this report does not discuss the operating principle
of the respective circuit in detail since well-written books have
been published,44−47 the first question that should be addressed
by students is “why does a potentiostatic measurement typically
require the three-electrode system?” This question is simple yet
essential to understanding the operating principle and perform-
ance limitations as follows. In the two-electrode system, which
can be familiar to students, the current passing through the cell is
determined by kinetics on the surfaces of both electrodes, and
the potential of an electrode cannot be determined unless the
potential of the other electrode is known. This situation is very
inconvenient for the study of an electrode reaction of interest. It
is still possible if an electrode with known potential and a
completely nonpolarizable surface regardless of the voltage
impressed (the so-called ideal reference electrode) is employed
as one of two electrodes. However, students could realize that
such an electrode is only practically available when the current is
quite small enough against the electrode surface (i.e., very low
current density, which can be indirectly achieved when an
ultramicroelectrode is used as the other electrode where a
reaction of interest takes place on its surface). To overcome the
difficulty relevant to this nonideality, a three-electrode system
was invented in 1942,48 where a reference electrode as the third
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Figure 3. (a) Diagram of a circuit (shown as CRcali in Figure 1c) tested and (b) Nyquist (blue line) and Bode magnitude (red line) plots of an
impedance spectrum obtained by using EIS in the device. The spectrum was obtained by successive measurements of the impedance characteristics of
three circuits where the W terminal was (1) placed at point P4, (2) connected to point P5, and (3) connected to point P6.

Figure 4. (a) Output waveform of the current response (red line) from the device when a symmetrical triangular waveform (blue line) was input to the
device to which a typical 3-electrode electrochemical cell was connected. The cell consists of a glassy carbon disk (d = 3 mm) working, Ag/AgNO3
reference, and Pt counter electrodes in acetonitrile solution containing ferrocene (∼1 mM) and tetraethylammonium perchlorate (0.5 M) at 25 ± 2
°C. (b) Voltammograms resulting from plotting the outputs against the respective input waveforms: CV and Osteryoung square-wave voltammogram
(SWV). The sweep rates for CV and SWV were 100 and 100 mV/s (calculated from the step and frequency in SWV), respectively. This figure was
prepared by using Voltammogrammer software.

electrode only sensing the potential of one of two electrodes
(called a working electrode) is introduced to maintain a very low
current density, and meanwhile, a relatively large current from
the working electrode is received by the other electrode (called a
counter electrode) with a large surface area (relative to that of
3365
the working electrode) to avoid kinetically inhibiting the
reaction being proven on the working electrode. For the sake
of this, the potential difference between the working and counter
electrodes is automatically controlled by vacuum bulbs to keep
the potential difference between the working and reference
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Figure 5. (a) Photograph of the downsized device specialized for CV at a fast scanning rate and (b) scanning rate dependence of CV of anthracene (4
mM) recorded using an ultramicroelectrode (Pt, d = 10 μm) as a working electrode (W) and Pt wire as a counter electrode (C) with a Ag/AgNO3
reference electrode (R) in acetonitrile containing tetraethylammonium perchlorate (0.5 M) at 25 ± 2 °C. The scanning rate was varied in the range of
0.01 (black), 0.1 (blue), 1 (green), 10 (orange), and 100 (red) kV/s. The obtained voltammograms were organized and normalized to respective
current functions according to the Randles−Š evčiḱ equation by using Voltammogrammer software.

electrodes constant according to Kirchhoff’s first law. This
automatic system is currently enabled by employing monolithic
operational amplifiers with substantially improved capabilities as
active electrical elements (OP1−3 in Figure 1a), although there
are still performance limitations of this automatic system due to
the nonidealities of a practical operational amplifier (see the
Supporting Information for an example of improvements in the
capabilities of an amplifier over 50 years).
The device response characteristics were tested on the basis of
two responsivities of current and frequency. First, the current
responsivity is theoretically determined by the current sensing
resistor (Rf in Figure 1a) with the input bias current and
maximum output/sink current of an operational amplifier
(OP1−3) for the lower and upper limits, respectively. The
currents of the operational amplifier ADA4610-4 (Analog
Devices) used in the device (OP1−3 in Figure 1) are 5 pA
and 79 mA, respectively, corresponding to a dynamic range of
approximately 109. However, due to the resolution (14 bit) of
the analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in the digital oscillo-
scope, mechanical relays (S5−S7 in Figure 1a) select a resistor,
Rf, corresponding to a current range of interest. The lower limit
of current responsivity was practically evaluated to be a few pA
(when Rf is 1 GΩ) by measuring a cyclic voltammogram under
diffusion-limited conditions using an ultramicroelectrode (Pt, d
= 10 μm), as shown in Figure S5 (see Section G1 in the
Supporting Information). The upper limit can be extended if a
buffer amplifier is used in combination. The accuracy and
precision of current control, which are determined by those of
potential control, were ±2 and ±3 μA/mA, respectively, for the
calibrated device (see Section D2 in the Supporting
Information). Next, the frequency responsivity is, in principle,
limited by the product of voltage gain and bandwidth (GBP) for
an operational amplifier. Although the GBP of ADA4610-4 is
16.3 MHz, the actual voltage gain of the device strongly depends
on the physical circuit topology and signal intensity applied for
the device. Figure 3 shows the frequency response of a test
circuit by potentiostatic EIS. The test circuit (CRcali in Figure
3366
1c) is depicted in Figure 3a, which is equivalent to a typical
three-electrode electrochemical cell where the W terminal is
connected to the point P4, as shown in Figure 3a (the so-called
Voigt equivalent circuit). Figure 3b shows a screenshot of the
Voltammogrammer software just after the measurement,
representing the Nyquist and Bode magnitude plots. In this
device, a sinusoidal waveform of the voltage at a given frequency
is input to the operational amplifier OP2 from the arbitrary
waveform generator (AWG) via the AWG (W1) pin, and then
the temporal change in voltage at point P1 (as potential changes
at the working electrode) is recorded as a waveform via the ADC
(1+) pin. The temporal change in current passing through the
working electrode is recorded as a waveform of voltage via the
ADC (2+) pin. These two waveforms are compared by an
impedance analyzer (IA) inside the digital oscilloscope, from
which the impedance of the test circuit (or an electrochemical
cell) at the frequency is determined. An EIS is then acquired by
sweeping the frequency from 1 to 1 MHz (in the case of Figure
3b, for example). For Figure 3b, two measurements were
conducted a priori to remove the impedance of the device as a
test fixture using the autobalancing bridge for IA:49−53 (1) the
case where the W terminal is located at point P5, which is
disconnected from point P4, as shown in Figure 3a (open circuit
compensation), and (2) the case where the R and W terminals
are shorted at point P6, as shown in Figure 3a (short circuit
compensation). These measurements were also conducted by
selecting a graphical menu in the Voltammogrammer software
(noted by M in red). Figure 3b shows two facts: (1) the
resistance and capacitance can be determined with an accuracy
of ±10%, and (2) the device performance limit is approximately
1 MHz, characterizing the practical usability of the device.
Although the short circuit compensation cannot be performed
when the potential is biased, the measurement without these
compensations still affords a satisfactory result (see Section D1
in the Supporting Information for details).
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Journal of Chemical Education
■
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
PRACTICE WITH APPARATUS
Most likely, the most popular technique among various
electroanalytical studies is (cyclic) voltammetry. Figure 4
shows the electrochemical response of ferrocene measured by
a student using a glassy carbon disk (d = 3 mm) as a working
electrode in an acetonitrile solution containing tetraethylammo-
nium perchlorate, 0.5 M as an electrolyte. This was acquired by
setting the initial potential, vertex potential, and sweep rate to
−0.3 V, +0.5 V, and 100 mV/s, respectively, after selecting the
“Cyclic voltammetry (CV)” technique from the menu, which
lists available techniques in the Voltammogrammer software (as
shown in Figure 4a). In voltammetry, a temporal change in
current passing through the working electrode is recorded when
the working electrode potential is formally swept. Here, it is a
good exercise to bring a word of “formally” to the student’s
attention since the working electrode potential is virtual-
grounded. The student can visually recognize why a technique
using a symmetrical triangular waveform of voltage as an input
(indicated by the blue line in Figure 4a) is called cyclic
voltammetry (CV). In the device, the input from the AWG
(W1) pin is received by the OP2 amplifier, and the response
current (indicated by the red line in Figure 4a) at the working
electrode is recorded as a waveform of voltage via the ADC (2+)
pin of the digital oscilloscope, from which the voltammogram is
obtained by plotting the response against the input (CV as
shown in Figure 4b). Its shape is found in an electrochemistry
textbook where the shape is relevant to Fick’s law of diffusion
(see the Supporting Information for the theoretical shape
calculated by a Wolfram Mathematica script using the Bulter−
Volmer equation). The peak separation was 65 mV, which is
close to the theoretical value of 57.0 mV54 (see Section D1 in the
Supporting Information for the nonideal case). In the
Voltammogrammer software, other input waveforms can be
freely generated. Figure 4b also shows an Osteryoung square-
wave voltammogram (SWV) measured using the same solution.
The voltammogram looks simple at first glance, but the input
and response waveforms are very complex (see the Supporting
Information). The difference between potential-sweep and
potential-step techniques can be presented to the student in a
further assignment.
■ SCALABILITY OF THE APPARATUS AS A
FRAMEWORK
The apparatus represented in Figure 1 is useful not only for
general electrochemical measurements but also as a framework
to develop a device for a particular purpose. This is because the
flexibility and rapidness of the device design have been greatly
improved by dramatic improvements in the performance of an
operational amplifier and advances in interface technology for
analog circuits to digital circuits. For example, although the
circuit’s frequency response (∼1 MHz, as shown in Figure 1)
limits the scanning rate in cyclic voltammetry up to 0.1 kV/s, this
limitation can be eliminated by a specific device design based on
the framework. The scanning rate is one of the principle
parameters characterizing the kinetics of an electrode
reaction.55,56 The cyclic voltammogram of ferrocene described
above is only the case observed when the scanning rate is much
slower and faster than the rates of heterogeneous electron-
transfer reaction and (precedent or following) chemical
reactions, respectively. The device capable of varying the
scanning rate in a wide range is useful for students to investigate
3367
Technology Report
a practical electrochemical reaction, e.g., the activation process
of the precatalyst for an electrochemical CO2 reduction.57
To improve the frequency response, the circuit is downsized,
as shown in Figure 5a. The additional cost is only 30 USD (see
the Supporting Information for details). In this small
circuit,58−60 not only is the inductance of the entire circuit
reduced, but also the two roles of one operational amplifier
(OP3 in Figure 1a), (1) converting the current response at the
working electrode into a voltage and (2) amplifying the voltage,
are now handled with two operational amplifiers (OP4−5 in
Figure 5a and see the Supporting Information for a detailed
circuit). Figure 5b shows the scan-rate dependence of the
oxidative response of anthracene in acetonitrile measured by CV
using an ultramicroelectrode (Pt, d = 10 μm). The voltammo-
gram, which was observed to be totally irreversible at a low
scanning rate (approximately 0.1 kV/s) due to rapid subsequent
reaction(s) to the oxidation of the aromatic ring, became
reversible at a scanning rate of 100 kV/s (peak currents in the
anodic and cathodic scans were almost the same intensity,
although the charging current was not negligible due to the
“large” surface area of the ultramicroelectrode at this scanning
rate),61,60 from which the half-wave potential for 1-electron
oxidation of anthracene was determined to be +0.89 V vs Fc+/
Fc, which agrees well with the previously reported value62
(+0.91 V vs Fc+/Fc in acetonitrile with tetraethylammonium
perchlorate, 0.6 M).
■ STUDENTS’ EXPERIENCES
These devices were assembled and used by undergraduate
students in the organic−inorganic hybrid material chemistry
course at the Department of Material and Life Chemistry,
Faculty of Engineering, in Kanagawa University, Japan, for the
full year of 2019. They were in their fourth year at the university
and interested in functional materials or energy-related issues. In
the course, each student was assigned to conduct research about
a scientific topic and submitted the thesis under the supervision
of educators. Before these devices were developed in 2019,
students in the course had experienced several obstacles as
follows:
(1) Students used a commercial potentiostat as a black-boxed
instrument. As a result, they could not have a chance to
observe the real circuit managing the three-electrode
system in an intelligent way.
(2) A commercial potentiostat/galvanostat/EIS instrument
that provides various functionalities and capabilities is
quite expensive for laboratory classes, which made it
financially difficult for the educator to allocate the
multiple units to students so as to conduct their respective
research studies concurrently. Furthermore, when the
instrument was broken, their research was interrupted for
a while. The repair cost was also expensive.
(3) Although an expensive commercial potentiostat has many
functions, the software interface was too complicated for a
beginner (who just started to learn electrochemistry) to
understand how to operate. The functionalities and
capabilities of an inexpensive one were sometimes
insufficient for students to conduct scientific research in
the later stage.
(4) Careful organizing and analyzing a lot of voltammograms
measured under various conditions is crucial to deduce a
conclusion. However, the data manipulation (e.g., unit
conversion, nondimensionalization, and conversion of a
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potential scale) for students using spreadsheet software
was quite tedious and subject to error.
These indicate that both hardware and software for the
electrochemical device should be well-designed yet affordable in
order to improve students’ experiences. The devices based on
the open-sourced framework in this report provided sufficient
functionalities, capabilities, and usability for students to
investigate their research topics without these obstacles.
■ CONCLUSION
Electrochemistry addresses energy-relevant issues that are
recognized as the central matter in our society, and the study
of this topic is essential for the development of a sustainable
society for the future. Hence, its apparatus should be general,
scalable, and affordable. The framework and its apparatus
reported in this study fully satisfy these requirements where a
wide range of electrochemical techniques is available, yet the
cost is affordable (410 USD including an oscilloscope): (1)
cyclic voltammetry, square-wave voltammetry, and (potential-
step) chronoamperometry as potentiostatic measurements
conjugated with iR compensation and rotating-disk electrode
apparatus in a wide range of current and voltage (pA to 0.1 A and
±12 V); (2) chronopotentiometry (with an arbitrary current) as
a galvanostatic measurement; and (3) electrochemical impe-
dance spectroscopy with a bandwidth of 0.1−1 MHz. Although
the device might be too complicated to be assembled in a
laboratory class, the simplified version of the device remedies the
issue without a large loss of its capability. The software
communicating the device was also implemented in two ways,
i.e., C# and LabView languages; however, other languages are
also available since the oscilloscope as the controller in Scheme 1
provides an application programming interface (API) for
software languages. This indicates that the view (in Scheme 1)
for the device can be an IoT device (e.g., Raspberry Pi) rather
than a typical laptop computer. Additionally, it was also
demonstrated that the current framework can be applied for a
specific purpose, e.g., cyclic voltammetry at a very fast scanning
rate (∼100 kV/s) with an additional cost of only 30 USD. These
devices substantially enhance the learning environment of
electrochemistry. Therefore, this small yet powerful and flexible
framework is pedagogically useful and promotes chemistry,
technology, engineering, and mathematics education for
potential chemists.63
■
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
*
sı Supporting Information
The Supporting Information is available at https://pubs.ac-
s.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00228.
Details for the full version, simplified version, and specific-
purpose version of the devices; basic operation with the
devices; mechanism for the measurement of a cyclic
voltammogram using the devices; experiments with the
devices; a Wolfram script for a theoretical calculation of
the shape of cyclic voltammogram based on the Butler−
Volmer equation; and compilation of capabilities of
selected low-cost electrochemical devices (PDF)
Printed circuit board (PCB) design files in Gerber format
(these can be viewed by electronic design automation
software, e.g., KiCad); Wolfram Mathematica file (*.nb);
control software written in C# and LabView graphical
languages (Microsoft Visual Studio 2017 file: *.sln; and
National Instrument LabView 2020 file: *.vi, respec-
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Technology Report
tively); and mechanical design files of the small Faraday
cage enclosing the device (Autodesk Inventor 2019 files:
*.ipt) (ZIP)
■
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
Yasuo Matsubara − Research Center for Artificial
Photosynthesis, Osaka City University, Sugimoto, Osaka 558-
8585, Japan; Department of Material and Life Chemistry,
Kanagawa University, Rokkakubashi, Yokohama 221-8686,
Japan; orcid.org/0000-0001-9791-7197; Email: yasuo@
osaka-cu.ac.jp
Complete contact information is available at:
https://pubs.acs.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.1c00228
Notes
The author declares no competing financial interest.
■
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I thank my undergraduate students and especially acknowledge
the works of Ryuji Sakuma, Nana Masano, Mizue Asakura, and
Takahiro Tsumuraya on electrochemical measurements, and
Naomasa Kanako, Kaito Abe, and Tomohiro Uchiyama on
device assembly. I also thank Prof. Dr. Masanobu Higashi and
Yoshihiro Koide for helpful comments.
■ REFERENCES
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(63) A tutorial review for students who undertake electrochemical
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8117. This review is also helpful for readers to understand
potentiostatic instrumentation in detail.

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