Abstract
Our group embarked on the project in the light of building a cyclic voltammeter, a versatile electroanalytical instrument from scratch. At the very initial stage, we had nothing but a mere thin sheet of paper.
Before the prelim round, we focused on studying the publication thoroughly especially the various concepts and theories behind each process. Some of the knowledge are far beyond our level of understanding currently, so we seek help from our mentor for clarification. But one thing to take note is that the task is actually building the machine itself rather than verify the credibility of the design, hence we tried to avoid being too technical but focus on the sufficient knowledge for our construction.
After prelim, the actual construction of various parts of the cyclic voltammeter started. Firstly we built the potentiostat using breadboard and through-hole components for basic testings. Though the process of transferring the schematic diagram to actual design was quite troublesome, the testing result was satisfactory. With more understanding of the potentiostat, we started on the PCB which is an advanced substitution of the breadboard prototype that provided more accuracy and smaller size. This area of knowledge is new to the group, thus we learned along the way and were finally able to give out the complete design. After waiting for two weeks, the PCB were manufactured and soldering of the components were done immediately.
Meanwhile we constructed a homemade Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The process was straightforward since it was pretty much guided, however we encountered problem when we found the testing result was far beyond the acceptable range. Then the trouble-shooting part kicked in, we reviewed out experiment procedure carefully and analyzed where went wrong, fortunately we successfully found the flaw and fixed it.
With the current progress, we left the data processing part to be accomplished. The group had a hard time studying it since its even higher level.
In the future, our group will work on the final prototype by connecting all the components built and conduct several rounds of testings. Then we will compare the results obtained with the standard graphs from a commercial CV.
Before the prelim round, we focused on studying the publication thoroughly especially the various concepts and theories behind each process. Some of the knowledge are far beyond our level of understanding currently, so we seek help from our mentor for clarification. But one thing to take note is that the task is actually building the machine itself rather than verify the credibility of the design, hence we tried to avoid being too technical but focus on the sufficient knowledge for our construction.
After prelim, the actual construction of various parts of the cyclic voltammeter started. Firstly we built the potentiostat using breadboard and through-hole components for basic testings. Though the process of transferring the schematic diagram to actual design was quite troublesome, the testing result was satisfactory. With more understanding of the potentiostat, we started on the PCB which is an advanced substitution of the breadboard prototype that provided more accuracy and smaller size. This area of knowledge is new to the group, thus we learned along the way and were finally able to give out the complete design. After waiting for two weeks, the PCB were manufactured and soldering of the components were done immediately.
Meanwhile we constructed a homemade Ag/AgCl reference electrode. The process was straightforward since it was pretty much guided, however we encountered problem when we found the testing result was far beyond the acceptable range. Then the trouble-shooting part kicked in, we reviewed out experiment procedure carefully and analyzed where went wrong, fortunately we successfully found the flaw and fixed it.
With the current progress, we left the data processing part to be accomplished. The group had a hard time studying it since its even higher level.
In the future, our group will work on the final prototype by connecting all the components built and conduct several rounds of testings. Then we will compare the results obtained with the standard graphs from a commercial CV.