PalmSens Knowledge Base
Potentiostat
In short, an electronic device that measures and controls the potential (or voltage) difference between two electrodes is called a potentiostat. The advantage of a potentiostat is that it has complete control over the applied potential, unlike other power sources, while measuring the response current. Potentiostats are mainly used in electrochemistry, although other fields make use of them as well.
A potentiostat applies potential to a certain surface, an electrode. The amount of electrons on the surface is thereby reduced or increased. This causes the liquid to be triggered to deliver or consume electrodes to compensate for this. The exchange of electrons per time, the electrode’s current, can be measured by the potentiostat. This is usually done in a three-electrode setup (Figure 1).
Figure 1 | Scheme of a three-electrode setup for a potentiostat
For more information, see Chapter Potentiostats.
Related articles
Potentiostats: use, compounds, disadvantages and function
In this section the reasons for the three electrode setup of most potentiostats is explained, what the task of each electrode is and what to take into consideration when choosing your counter electrode.
Troubleshooting on potentiostat experiments
Here are some general comments on trouble shooting that are valid for any experiment. We made this list to enable even not very experienced users to find the sources of trouble as soon as possible to keep the frustration level for you and coworkers as low as possible.
History of the potentiostat
Knowing the history of a device is helpful to understand certain terminologies or identify obsolete parts of a device that are still used because this is how it was always done.
Potentiostat
An electronic device that measures and controls the potential (or voltage) difference between two electrodes is called a potentiostat.
Electrodes used with a potentiostat
This section gives a short overview of the three types of electrodes (working, reference, counter electrode) you will encounter while using a potentiostat. It is explained how these electrodes look like and what their task is.
Potentiostat System on Module
This is an article published by Analog Devices on their website about the EmStat Pico its advantages and application examples.
Potentiostatic and Galvanostatic EIS
What is GEIS? When to use GEIS or PEIS?
Multichannel, polypotentiostat or multiplexer
This will help you to choose the ideal multi-channel instrument for your application.
