A simplified electrochemical instrument equipped with automated flow-injection system and network communication technology for remote online monitoring of heavy metal ions

Fully automated electrochemical measuring equipment was designed in this work for online monitoring of heavy metal ions in water. Compared with the commercial instrument already available, the equipment was simplified with four common electrochemical methods: cyclic voltammetry (CV), linear sweep voltammetry (LSV), differential pulse voltammetry (DPV), and square wave voltammetry (SWV). In the monitor, a series of operations for the detection, i.e., sampling and dispensing of the sample, addition of relevant chemicals, acquisition and transmission of the measured data, were fully automated. The monitoring was effective and convenient in combination with the internet of things. To demonstrate the performance of the instrument, a comparison was made with commercial electrochemical analyzer and a well coincidence was gained in laboratory. Finally, online monitoring was also applied in real environment and the accuracy of the instrument was confirmed compared with standard analytical method.