Development and Characterization of a Microcomputer-Controlled Potentiometric Stripping Analyzer

This paper describes and compares three equipment versions for potentiometric stripping analysis (PSA) of varying degree of sophistication. Increasingly higher computer systems with faster rate of data acquisition and larger computer memory were used to control the three equipment constructed. The first version employed a Motorola 6800 microprocessor and a Heathkit microcomputer learning system; the second version was controlled by a 6502 microprocessor via a commercial general-purpose analog-to-digital interface card; and the fmal version utilized an IBM PC/XT compatible microcomputer and a home-built data acquisition system. The evaluation of the analytical performance of the final instrument in ultra-trace metal analysis is presented.