Design of a Photo-Assisted Electrochemical Potentiostat for Preconcentration-Free Detection of Heavy Metal Copper
Yuhan Hao1, Haiyang Huang1, Cong Zhao2
1State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, JLU College of Electronic Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China.
Abstract:
Rapid on-site detection of heavy metal ions is important for food and water safety, while traditional electrochemical stripping voltammetry is limited by its time-consuming preconcentration step. Herein, an integrated photo-assisted electrochemical potentiostat, PAEcStat, was developed for the rapid preconcentration-free detection of heavy metal ions. The system integrates a 20 W LED driver with closed-loop light-intensity regulation and a low-noise electrochemical analog front-end for differential pulse voltammetry. The illumination intensity can be regulated from 1000 to 19,000 lux at a distance of 10 cm with an error within ±100 lux. The analog front-end provides a current detection range of 10 nA to 4 mA, with excellent linearity (R2 = 0.99991) and a DPV current deviation of only 0.063% in simulated tests. For sensing validation, a photoactive Co3O4/WOx/FTO electrode was fabricated for Cu2+ detection under blue-light illumination, achieving a calibration equation of Ipa = 50.28C + 8.96 with R2 = 0.984. Compared with a commercial CHI660E workstation, PAEcStat showed an average relative deviation of 1.92% over 0.1-1.0 mg/L Cu2+. These results demonstrate that PAEcStat is a reliable and integrated platform for rapid photo-assisted electrochemical detection in on-site applications.
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