BASi EC News - March 2008

American Chemical Society Spring Meeting, New Orleans April 6 – 10, 2008

BASi will be exhibiting at the 2008 ACS Spring Meeting in New Orleans. The Exposition will be held in Halls C & D of the Morial Convention Center, and the BASi booth number is 522. We will again be displaying our line of epsilon instruments. Please stop by to see the latest features of the epsilon, and to discuss any of the BASi products and services.

ESEAC (European Society for Electrochemistry) Meeting Prague, Czech Republic June 16 – 19, 2008
Jon Howell will present poster 900-3 P on Monday afternoon from 2:30 to 4:30 in Exhibition Floor Hall C.

Dr. Craig Bruntlett will attend the ESEAC meeting in Prague in June. Contact him at cbruntlett(at)bioanalytical.com if you wish to arrange to talk with him personally while there. For more information see the ESEAC website.

20th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana July 27-31, 2008

BASi will exhibit at the 20th Biennial Conference on Chemical Education at Indiana University in July. The BCCE is a national meeting sponsored by the Division of Chemical Education of the American Chemical Society. For more information see the BCCE website.

Items for Electrochemistry in a Glove Box

An inert atmosphere is often required for electrochemical experiments when studying oxygen-sensitive or moisture-sensitive compounds. A common means to accomplish this is to work inside a glove box. Several BASi products are popular for work in this environment. The glove box feed-through cable provides a relatively simple connection of the external potentiostat to the internal cell. The VC-2 voltammetry cell is an inexpensive voltammetry cell that can be used with a ring stand and takes up little space inside the glove box. The non-aqueous reference electrode kit provides a stable reference potential in organic solvents in cases where an aqueous reference electrode cannot be used.

Glove Box Feed-Through Cable
The glove box feed-through cable provides a leak-proof connection between the external electrochemical instrument and the internal cell. A sealed (air-tight) female-to-female LEMO feed-through connector with an O-ring compression seal to the wall of the glove box is available (F1). The panel cutout is shown in F2, but a 12.1 (+0.1, -0) mm diameter round hole will work as well. A short (2 ft.) extension cable (free male LEMO to free female LEMO connector) is included and must be plugged inside the glove box. This short cable is required to correct the "crossing of lines" that occurs in the LEMO feed-through connector. The feed-through and extension cables accept standard BASi cell lead cables. External connection between an instrument and feed-through is via a Lemo-to-Lemo cable. Our standard length cable (EW-7524) is 4 feet long, but typically a special 8-foot cable is ordered.

Figure 1. LEMO feed-through connector

Figure 2. Panel cutout for feed-through connector

VC-2 Voltammetry Cell

MF-1052

Often our C3 Cell Stand is not desired for glove box work because the gas purge is not required and because of space limitations. The VC-2 Voltammetry Cell assembly is an inexpensive alternative to hold the test sample and BASi electrodes. The Teflon^® top includes a platinum wire auxiliary electrode with gold connecting pin. This electrode can be removed and replaced if it becomes worn. BASi reference and working electrodes, which must be ordered separately, fit into holes in the top. Both these electrodes are positioned in the vial by use of the O-rings which accompany them. The vial can hold 10-20 mL of sample solution.

Non-aqueous Silver/Silver Ion (Ag/Ag+) Reference Electrode Kit

This kit contains the parts required for construction of a non-aqueous silver/silver ion reference electrode. The glass electrode body has a porous Vycor tip attached with heat-shrink tubing. The removable Teflon top contains a silver wire and 0.060 " gold-plated connecting pin for the cell lead. The kit also contains solid silver nitrate, extra heat-shrink tubing, and extra-porous Vycor tips. Non-aqueous solvents must be supplied by the user. An instruction sheet illustrates easy assembly.