Gamry Instruments MultiPort, Operator'S Manual

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Troubleshooting--Full-scale current and voltage when you run an experiment, many overloads
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If your cell includes a counter-electrode isolation tube, it is not filled with electrolyte.
Stop the experiment, fix the error, and restart. The working electrode is not damaged.
Full-scale current and voltage when you run an experiment, many overloads
•
The reference electrode (white) lead in the cell cable is not connected to the cell properly.
• The working sense (blue) lead in the cell cable is not connected to the cell properly.
•
You have incorrect experimental settings (e.g., wrong potential).
•
Two of your electrodes are shorted together.
• There is a gas bubble in the Reference Bridge Tube.
Large currents have passed through the working electrode. It may need to be resurfaced or replaced.
Noisy Cell Current: overloads may be present
•
Your de-oxygenation gas is still bubbling through the solution.
• You have a high impedance in the reference electrode path.
•
There is a gas bubble in the Reference Bridge Tube.
• You are picking up noise: try a Faraday cage.
Excess back pressure required to bubble deoxygenation gas
•
No path is available for the gas to escape.
Poor Experimental Reproducibility
•
A variable amount of test solution is leaking under the PTFE Compression Gasket. The solution does
not have to actually reach the inside of the sample holder tube to have an effect.
•
Your cell, solution, or working electrode surface has a contamination problem. Carefully clean the cell
and components. Avoid touching the wetted surfaces of these parts.
•
Contaminants are entering the cell from the graphite counter electrode.
• Your electrochemical system is inherently irreproducible; often true of localized corrosion
phenomena.