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Chapter 2: Introduction
About this Manual
This manual covers the installation, safety, and use of the Gamry Instruments Reference 3000
Potentiostat/Galvanostat/ZRA. It also includes information about the Reference 3000's AE Auxiliary
Electrometer option.
This manual describes use of a Reference 3000 with Revision 7.00 (and later revisions) of the Gamry
Framework software. It is equally useful when setting up a newly purchased potentiostat or modifying the setup
of an older potentiostat for use with new software.
You will find dry technical material such as specifications and connector pin-out diagrams in the Appendices.
This manual does not discuss software installation or software operation in any detail. Software support for the
Reference 3000 is described in the Gamry Framework's Help system.
All the Gamry Instruments' applications running under the Gamry Framework control the Reference 3000 via a
PSTAT object. See the Framework's Help system for information concerning PSTAT objects and their functions.
About the Reference 3000
The Reference 3000 Potentiostat is a research-grade electrochemical instrument packaged in a small, easy-to-
handle case. It is the larger, higher-current sibling of Gamry's extremely popular Reference 600+ potentiostat.
It is especially useful when currents higher than the 600 mA current-limit of the Reference 600+ are required.
Typical applications for the Reference 3000 include research regarding batteries, fuel cells and super-
capacitors. It should also prove useful in studies involving electrochemical synthesis, electroplating and
corrosion. While it can apply and measure ampere-level currents, it is also an excellent small-signal potentiostat
that can work with picoampere and sometimes even femtoampere current levels.
The Reference 3000 offers measurement capabilities similar to instruments many times larger in size, weight,
and price. The Reference 3000 can operate as a potentiostat, a galvanostat, or a ZRA (zero-resistance
ammeter). A new stack mode allows precision control and measurement of battery-stack voltages as large as
36 V.
The Reference 3000 offers two different compliance-voltage and compliance-current settings. You can choose
to operate the Reference 3000 set for compliance of 1.5 A and voltages up to 30 V, or you can chose to
operate at 3 A and voltages up to 15 V. This choice cannot be changed in the middle of an experimental
run.
Reference 3000 features include:
Eleven-decade current auto-ranging,
Electrical isolation from earth ground,
Switchable compliance-current and compliance-voltage settings,
Current-interrupt iR-compensation, and
Both analog and digital filtering.
A sine-wave generator on the Reference 3000 allows its use for impedance measurements at frequencies up to
1 MHz. Data can be acquired at frequencies up to 300 000 points per second, allowing cyclic voltammetry at
scan rates of 1500 V/s with 5 mV per point resolution.
A unique DSP (Digital Signal Processing) data-acquisition mode allows the Reference 3000 to reject noise from
the instrument itself, from the electrochemical cell, and from the laboratory environment. In many cases where
other instruments require a cell in a Faraday shield to make quiet measurements, the Reference 3000 can be
used with the cell exposed on a bench top.
Introduction – About this Manual
15
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