PULSE: A Fast Portable Unit for Lab-on-Site Electrochemistry

This study aims to develop and validate a novel fast-detection electrochemical sensing platform to enhance portable electrochemical sensor solutions. The research focuses on optimising analogue front-end circuits, developing data analysis algorithms, and validating the device through experiments to enhance measurement accuracy and detection speed, enabling on-site measurements across diverse applications. This work successfully designed a Portable Unit for Lab-on-Site Electrochemistry (PULSE) system with dimensions of <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>78</mn><mo>×</mo><mn>100</mn><mo>×</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><msup><mi>mm</mi><mn>3</mn></msup></semantics></math></inline-formula>. The device’s implementation was complemented by robust firmware that performed desired electrochemical measurements, including open circuit potentiometry (OCP), chronoamperometry (CA), and cyclic voltammetry (CV). To assess its reliability, the PULSE was benchmarked against a well-established benchtop potentiostat. The results obtained highlight the system’s rapid sensing capabilities, achieving pH detection in 2 s and performing CA in 20 s. The pH calibration curve exhibited Nernstian behaviour with an accuracy of 97.58%. A correlation analysis comparing the calibration curve datasets across all electrochemical techniques from both systems revealed high correlation coefficients (>0.99), confirming the strong agreement between the two systems.