SmartStat: Smartphone based Potentiostat for wireless electrochemical
analysis
Nishchal Kutarekar [15IE33004]
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
nishchalk@iitkgp.ac.in
INTRODUCTION
Electrochemical analysis is an important tool with its
applications in fields of tele-medicine, environment, industrial, food
and drug monitoring. A potentiostat is a control and measurement
instrument necessary for electrochemical analysis.
SmartStat is an inexpensive open-source portable potentiostat
operated with a smartphone, interfaced using a "Bluetooth Low
Energy" protocol, without compromising measurement quality.
Features:
1. Smartphone operated
• Portable
• Real-time analysis of data (remotely)
• Send measurement data over the internet
2. Single Instrument for Multiple Electroanalytical Techniques
3. Open-source
4. Low-cost of components
Fig.1 Blog Diagram of SmartStat
Table.1 Comparison between open-source portable potentiostats.
NA represents not available.
SMARTSTAT - DESIGN
• RFduino microcontroller is used, which contains a 32-bit ARM
processor, memory, and in-bulit BLE for communication, I2C bus
for interfacing with DAC, digital outputs for switches, and a 10-bit
ADC with conversion time of 70 us.
• Using higher bit-resolution for ADC and DAC allows to measure
output with greater resolution.
• 2nd order low-pass filter is designed to decrease the noise in the
electrical potential.
• A configurable, digital PI controller is used for better accuracy of
the applied signals on the electrodes since it has been found that
the analog P-controller, used by most potentiostats, is a source for
high signal noise [Kellner et al. (2015)].
Fig.2 Potentiostat Circuit
WORKING
SmartStat has two main componets:
a) Smartphone: with application software (or APP)
b) SmartStat Potentiostat with microcontroller and other circuits.
BLE was chosen specifically for communication because:
• BLE microprocessors are low power and low cost
• It is implemented in all modern smartphones
• Has much larger work distance than alternative protocols like NFC
• BLE offers broad bandwidth
Fig.3 Summary of functions of SmartStat components
CONCLUSION
1. The overall circuit of the potentiostat was designed focusing on
measurement quality combined with ease of use.
2. Use of smartphone to operate the hardware wirelessly allows us
to store, analze and share experimental data easily.
3. Use of Digital PI Controller in place of analog P controller
improves the control accuracy of the working electrode potential.
4. Using switches over the circuit allows user to ake changes in
hardware with simple changes in Application software code.
REFERENCES
1) Ainla, Alar, et al. "Open-Source Potentiostat for Wireless Electrochemical Detection with
Smartphones." Analytical chemistry 90.10 (2018): 6240-6246.
2) Rowe, Aaron A., et al. "CheapStat: An open-source,“do-it-yourself” potentiostat for analytical and
educational applications." PloS one 6.9 (2011): e23783.
3) Dryden, Michael DM, and Aaron R. Wheeler. "DStat: A versatile, open-source potentiostat for
electroanalysis and integration." PloS one 10.10 (2015): e0140349.
4) Kellner, Karlheinz, et al. "A new, low-cost potentiostat for environmental measurements with an
easy-to-use PC interface." Procedia engineering 120 (2015): 956-960.