Metering systems, colorant application

Prior to the development of the glass electrode and pH meter, the color indicator application found a wide use for the direct determination of hydrogen-ion concentration. William Mansfield Clark (De Lamur Professor Emeritus of Physiological Chemistry at Johns Hopkins University) spent most of his lifetime investigating organic substances suitable for acid-base indicators. He never accepted the pH meter. In his classic book Oxidation-Reduction Potential of Organic Systems he stated ( ) ... 

The Munsell book standards corresponding to the limiting colors may even serve as material standards for industrial color control. In a material standard system the sample is compared with a standard by eye without the use of any meter or optical instrument. The success and popularity of these systems are largely due to their simplicity of application. The ability of the human eye to compensate for various illuminants and surroundings makes it possible for this system to give results even under mediocre conditions. The most critical work with material standards requires carefully controlled observing conditions. 

The field of modified electrodes spans a wide area of novel and promising research. The work dted in this article covers fundamental experimental aspects of electrochemistry such as the rate of electron transfer reactions and charge propagation within threedimensional arrays of redox centers and the distances over which electrons can be transferred in outer sphere redox reactions. Questions of polymer chemistry such as the study of permeability of membranes and the diffusion of ions and neutrals in solvent swollen polymers are accessible by new experimental techniques. There is hope of new solutions of macroscopic as well as microscopic electrochemical phenomena the selective and kinetically facile production of substances at square meters of modified electrodes and the detection of trace levels of substances in wastes or in biological material. Technical applications of electronic devices based on molecular chemistry, even those that mimic biological systems of impulse transmission appear feasible and the construction of organic polymer batteries and color displays is close to industrial use. 

As an initial (demonstration) application of the Icon/1000 control system, we automated two simultaneous acrylic lab polymerizations. In this application, heaters, agitators, and metering pumps are controlled. A batch proceeds automatically from state to state unless the operator intervenes through one of a series of color CRT touch screens allowing him to take complete manual control of the batch for as long as he desires. All important process variables are continually monitored and recorded. The entire control scheme was created, tested, and modified several times in the space of two months, without formal instruction, by a chemical engineer with little previous programming experience and no previous experience at all with this system. 

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