PICOBALANCE~(TM): A NEW SENSOR INSTRUMENT FOR INTEGRATED NANOGRAVIMETRIC AND ELECTROCHEMICAL MEASUREMENTS

摘要

In the Technobiochip laboratories an Electrochemical Quartz Crystal Microbalance (EQCM) instrument has been recently designed and realised; the design and performance of this new instrument, named Picobalance, are presented. The instrument is compact and easy to use. It consists of an electronic control system and a measuring chamber. By means of an Autolab~(~R) potentiostat the performance of the Picobalance was tested under cyclic voltammetry (CV) conditions with silver and copper electrodeposition/electrodissolution processes. Frequency changes due to mass changes of the quartz electrode were correlated with CV parameters. In order to check the mass and the concentration sensitivities the Picobalance was tested with 10 MHz crystal oscillator.