ACEstat: A DIY Guide to Unlocking the Potential of Integrated Circuit Potentiostats for Open-Source Electrochemical Analysis

Miniaturization of analytical instrumentation is paramount to enabling convenient in-field sensing. The recent thrust in potentiostat miniaturization for electrochemical sensing and general use has led to the development of commercial application specific integrated circuits (ASICs)that pack all the power of a benchtop instrument into one 5 mmx5 mm chip. While the capabilities of these integrated circuits far exceed those of open-source potentiostats in the literature, the activation barrier for their implementation requires extensive electrical and software engineeringexpertise to overcome. In order to more rapidly bring the utility of ASICpotentiostats to researchers, we present a low size, weight, power, and cost(Low SWaP-C) Army Corps of Engineers potentiostat (ACEstat) based onthe widely available ADuCM355 offered by Analog Devices. This potentiostatis a streamlined and fully programmable device that leverages industry-leadingintegrated hardware to perform electrochemical measurements such as cyclicvoltammetry, pulse voltammetry, and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy. The ACEstat enables control over a wide range of test parameters and displays results through an intuitive, open-source graphical user interface available on mobile devices and computers. In this report, we present an approachable, do-it-yourself guide to unlocking the capabilities of this integrated circuitpotentiostat by outlining the fabrication and programming details necessary to facilitate electroanalysis. Furthermore, we demonstrate the practicality of this device by detecting 2,4,6-trinitrotoluene (TNT) in water at sub-mg/L detection limits, highlighting its potential for in-field use

Automated summary

Miniaturization of potentiostats is crucial for convenient in-field sensing. This report presents ACEstat, a low SWaP-C potentiostat based on ADuCM355, which demonstrates the potential for detecting explosive compounds in water.