PalmSens can be used with sensorarrays by means of a multiplexer. The CH8 multiplexer is the standard multiplexer with eight channels. PalmSens can be used with two CH8 multiplexers in parallel, thus providing 16 channels.
CH8 multiplexer with 8 channels.
PalmSens can be extended with the optional CH8 multiplexer. This multichannel potentiostat can be applied with different configurations of sensor arrays or electrochemical cells.
- Sensorarrays with eight working, eight reference and eight counter electrodes
- Sensorarrays with eight working and eight combined reference/counter electrodes
- Sensorarrays with eight working electrodes sharing a reference and a counter electrode
- Sensorarrays with eight working electrodes sharing a combined reference/counter electrode
In all configurations the sensors can be multiplexed, leaving the not-selected sensors at open circuit.
Sensor configurations b, c and d have the possibility to leave not-selected sensors at open circuit or to apply the same potential to all sensors.
The multiplexer is supported by the Pocket PC software as well as the Windows software.
The programs provide the possibility to select a channel and to start a measurement using the selected channel. Amperometric detection supports the multiplexer by providing two options:
- Measuring current as a function of time of each channel consecutively,
- Scanning the channels continuously each time the interval time has elapsed, with a maximum rate of 3 scans per second.
The program PSTrace allows to use the multichannel potentiostat for amperometric detection but also for cyclic and linear sweep voltammetry as well as differential pulse and square wave voltammetry.