Abstract
A portable spectroelectrochemical instrument capable of performing in situ sensing has been developed, extending the applicability of spectroelectrochemistry for chemical sensing. All components of the instrument were designed to facilitate real‐time simultaneous display of optical and electrochemical data for remote spectroelectrochemical measurements. Prior to this point in time, spectroelectrochemical measurements were confined to a laboratory setting, and remote analysis was not possible using custom or commercially available instrumentation. The novel instrumentation includes a software package for a portable computer, a small (paperback book sized) optical and electrochemical control unit, and an even smaller remote potentiostat. When the remote potentiostat is operated using fiber optic communication coupled with nine volt battery operation, the unit may operate for finite amounts of time at distances limited only by the attenuation of light in the optical fiber. Comparative studies of the custom instrument with commercially available electrochemical instrumentation were performed and showed excellent agreement. This unit was also tested using the ferricyanide/ferrocyanide reversible electrochemical couple by comparing it to bench top spectroelectrochemical instrumentation previously developed by our group.