Electrochemical Methods in the Cloud: FreiStat, an IoT-Enabled Embedded Potentiostat

Area of Science:

• Analytical Chemistry
• Electrochemistry
• Internet-of-Things (IoT)

Background:

• Embedded potentiostats are crucial for decentralized electrochemical sensing in IoT applications.
• Existing commercial embedded potentiostats often face limitations in cost, size, power consumption, and analytical performance.
• There is a need for advanced, cost-effective embedded potentiostats for remote monitoring and point-of-care diagnostics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and characterize an embedded potentiostat (FreiStat) for precise electrochemical measurements.
• To demonstrate the analytical capabilities of FreiStat using advanced electrochemical techniques and biosensing.
• To showcase the integration of FreiStat into an IoT framework for decentralized applications.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the AD5941 potentiostat circuit with custom firmware to create the Freiburg's Potentiostat (FreiStat).
• Performed cyclic voltammetry and differential pulse voltammetry to assess analytical performance.
• Developed a lactate biosensor assay and conducted decentralized corrosion analysis using Tafel plots on the IBM Cloud.

Main Results:

• FreiStat achieved high analytical performance, comparable to benchtop devices, with nA current resolution (54 pA).
• Demonstrated superior performance over commercial embedded potentiostats in terms of cost, size, and power consumption.
• Successfully applied FreiStat in a real-world IoT scenario for decentralized corrosion analysis.

Conclusions:

• FreiStat offers a precise, advanced, and cost-effective solution for embedded electrochemical measurements.
• The developed open-source software framework enables seamless integration with machine learning and AI.
• This approach significantly advances the potential for widespread, decentralized analytical chemistry applications.