Low-cost open-source potentiostats: A comprehensive review of DIY solutions and fundamental concepts of electronics and its integration with electrochemistry

The potentiostat is one of the most important instrument for research in the electrochemistry area. However, access to this kind of equipment may be limited because of the commercial price. In the last decades, many advances have been made towards developing low-cost and open -source versions of potentiostats for engineers and scientists. Furthermore, a lot of effort was put into the improvement of instrumentation and electronics for chemical analysis and, into the development of programming languages in the field of chemistry. However, many chemists have a limited capacity in this area since they are often not exposed to this expertise as part of a core undergraduate/graduate curriculum. This review aims to help and encourage chemists to explore the electronics and computer fields, proposing the use of these tools for research and education. Furthermore, it presents the most useful open -source, low-cost, lab -made potentiostats built to date, assessing their accessibility and electrochemical application capabilities, while providing the necessary information for readers to understand the advancements and limitations of each device.