Input resistance

This electrical field potential is measured by means of portable millivoltmeter with high input resistance. The field registration is carried out in the mountain areas at the distance of 5 km and more, at the same time the minimal gradient value is about 10 mV/km. 

Valve voltmeters were widely used in the past, but have been replaced by transistor voltmeters. With instruments of this type it is possible to achieve an input resistance of 50 MQ or more, the current required to operate the instrument being of the order of 10" A. The early instruments had a tendency to zero drift on the lower ranges, but this has been overcome in the modern transistor types. Such instruments are most often used to make potential readings in extremely high-resistance electrolytes. The accuracy of such instruments is of the order of 2% full-scale deflection. It is necessary to ensure that both types are so designed that they do not respond to alternating currents. 

Pacemaker activity can be blocked by LSD, which produces a hyperpolarization and a decrease in input resistance. Intracellular studies in the brain slice show that an increase in K+ conductance accounts for these changes. However, LSD... 

As deducible from Figure 8, to apply a precise potential value to the working electrode means to apply a precise difference of potential between the working and the reference electrodes. Since the electronic circuit to monitor such potential difference, V, is properly assembled to possess a high input resistance, only a small fraction of the current generated in the electrochemical cell as a consequence of the applied potential enters the reference electrode (thus not modifying its intrinsic potential) most current is channelled between the working and the auxiliary electrodes. 

Fig. 11.1. Two basic types of current ampliflers. (a) Feedback picoammeter. It consists of two components, an operational amplifier (op-amp) A, and a feedback resistor 1 fb- a typical value of the feedback resistor used in STM is 10 fl. The stray capacitance Cfb is an inevitable parasitic element in the circuit. In a careful design, Cfb 0.5 pF. The input capacitance Cm is also an inevitable parasitic element in the circuit. Those parasitic capacitors, the thermal noise of the feedback resistor, and the characteristics of the op-amp are the limiting factors to the performance of the picoammeter. (b) An electrometer used as a current amplifier (the shunt current amplifier). The voltage at the input resistance is amplified by the circuit, which consists of an op-amp and a pair of resistors R, and R2. The parasitic input capacitance Cm limits the frequency response, and the Johnson noise on Rm is the major source of noise. Also, the input resistance for this arrangement is large.

The pH meter is a specialized voltmeter that measures the potential difference (in mV) between the sensing and reference electrode and converts it to a display of pH. To provide an accurate measurement of the voltage of an extremely high resistance electrode (108 Q) [5], this specialized voltmeter must be designed with high input resistance or impedance characteristics (100 times that of the electrode used). Since the measurement potential difference per pH change is very small (59.16 mV/pH unit at 25°C), a reliable amplifier in the pH meter is also essential. It should be sufficiently sensitive to detect changes of at least 0.05 pH unit (or 3 mV). 

Any direct current source may be used as a current source (CS), in connection with a voltmeter with high input impedance, to control the applied potential at the working electrode. The applied potential can be measured via the reference electrode (R) using a voltmeter with a high input resistance (V). If a potentiostat is available, it will automatically control the working potential. 

Instrument limitations must be considered in the measurement of organic coatings because their resistivities are large, 1012 Q cm or more. The input resistance of common potentiostats is usually not more than 10n to 1012 ohms, and if the cell resistance approaches or exceeds the input resistance of the potenti-ostat, a significant fraction of the applied signal will pass across the input impedance and not the cell impedance. In these cases the collected data do not reflect just the impedance of the electrochemical interface, which is a fundamental assumption in almost all data analyses. In fact, the potentiostat input impedance in parallel with the stray capacitance associated with the potentiostat measuring leads will be obtained. 

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