Open ISEmeter: An open hardware high-impedance interface for potentiometric detection

In this work, a new open hardware interface based on Arduino to read electromotive force (emf) from potentiometric detectors is presented. The interface has been fully designed with the open code philosophy and all documentation will be accessible on web. The paper describes a comprehensive project including the electronic design, the firmware loaded on Arduino, and the Java-coded graphical user interface to load data in a computer (PC or Mac) for processing. The prototype was tested by measuring the calibration curve of a detector. As detection element, an active poly(vinyl chloride)-based membrane was used, doped with cetyltrimethylammonium dodecylsulphate (CTA⁺-DS⁻). The experimental measures of emf indicate Nernstian behaviour with the CTA⁺ content of test solutions, as it was described in the literature, proving the validity of the developed prototype. A comparative analysis of performance was made by using the same chemical detector but changing the measurement instrumentation.