Electroanalytical chemistry
The Story
When I started my graduate work in electroanalytical chemistry, the principal technique was polarography. Cyclic voltammetry had just gotten started. In my thesis research, I was among the first to use operational amplifiers for electronic control and measurement. I designed, without publication, many op-amp based electroanalytical instruments (See Chemical Instrumentation).
Among my innovations the area of methods development are charge-step polarography and the bipolar pulse method for measuring electrolytic conductance. A block diagram of the latter is shown in the figure for this category. Both were offshoots of my interests in electrochemical stimulation by pulses of charge and the nature of the electrical double layer.
The method of measuring conductance Don Johnson and I introduced replaced the AC Wheatstone Bridge, a cumbersome method to say the least. The pulse method quickly became the standard approach and is used to this day. I conceived it at a time when I was not tuned into the concept of patenting university research.
Publications in Electroanalytical Chemistry
My collaborators in this work were Donald Johnson, Janet Kudirka, Roger Abel, Ina Deng, and James Holler.