r/electrochemistry

Hey everybody,

I’m a rising senior chemistry major at UNC Chapel Hill. My goal after undergrad is to go into a phd program and study in the field of echem and biosensors.

My undergrad started pretty rough, I would goof around a little too much and wasn’t sure completely what I wanted to study. In an effort to try to find what I love, I took classes and gained a small background in other stem fields on the way of finding that what I wanted to study was chemistry. But now that I’ve found chemistry I have fallen in love with the field and the research I’m involved in.

I currently have just above a 3.0 gpa( I know, not ideal), have been involved in an engineering lab for 2 years, and started research in a lab researching organic cathode batteries. I really want to stay in the field of echem in my future career if possible. Also to note, I have shown great improvement in my academic performance since I’ve started at UNC.

I want to continue my research in chemistry wherever it leads me but I fear that my gpa and the little time I’ve spent in research is going to bite me in the butt when applying to grad programs.
What are some ways that I could distinguish myself and really show that I am passionate about what I’m learning?

Hi everyone, I'm interested in running experiments on organometallic complexes. Cyclic voltammetry and bulk electrolysis mainly. I'm trying to figure out what to buy. I understand that most of these boxes are built for feedthroughs but I'm still paranoid about leaks. Any models you recommend? Would love to hear pros/cons, any headaches with glovebox setups, or tips that saved you time.

Thanks a bunch!

Hi everyone,

I am looking for practical user experience with potentiostats for corrosion work, especially from people who have used these instruments in real lab conditions.

My main applications are:

Corrosion testing, EIS, LPR, Tafel/potentiodynamic polarization, cyclic polarization, galvanic corrosion/ZRA, and measurements on small passive samples/coatings where the current can be in the pA–nA–µA range.

The three candidates I am considering are:

1. Gamry Reference 620
2. Ivium CompactStat2
3. PalmSens Nexus

Important points for me:

• EIS is required, but 1 MHz is probably enough.
• Low-noise current measurement is very important, especially during cyclic polarization of passive samples.
• I care a lot about how well E/I autoranging behaves during cyclic polarization. I have a Gamry Reference 3000, and its autoranging usually works well, although sometimes I still see noise near OCP.
• With an old VersaSTAT 3, I had to implement E/I filtering to get normal-looking data for small passive samples.
• I like that Ivium appears to allow more control over filters during experiments.
• I am less sure about PalmSens Nexus: the specifications look good, but I want to know how it behaves in low-current corrosion measurements, especially with autoranging and filtering.
• Calibration/verification also matters. I am used to Gamry’s self-calibration tools, including regular calibration, low-current calibration, and cable capacitance calibration. Ivium seems to have a performance test with TestCell1, but full calibration is done by the manufacturer/distributor. PalmSens says periodic calibration is not needed, which I am not fully comfortable with for corrosion QA work.

My questions:

Has anyone used Ivium CompactStat2 for corrosion, cyclic polarization, passive alloys, or coating EIS? How is the current noise and autoranging?

Has anyone used PalmSens Nexus for low-current corrosion work? Can you control filtering/bandwidth easily in PSTrace?

For Gamry Reference 620 users: does it behave similarly well to the Reference 3000 in cyclic polarization and low-current autoranging?

Overall, which one would you choose as the main corrosion-lab potentiostat if the priorities are:

reliable low-current cyclic polarization + EIS + good software + good calibration/verification workflow?

Any real user experience, raw-data issues, service/calibration comments, or things to watch out for would be very helpful.

Thanks!