Instrumentation:

Cyclic voltammetry requires a waveform generator to produce the excitation signal, a potentiostat to apply this signal to an electrochemical cell, similar to a polarographic cell, a current to voltage converter to measure the resulting current and an X-Y recorder or oscilloscope to display the voltammogram.  The first three items are normally incorporated into a single electronic device, though modular instruments may also be used. A potentiostat ensures in which the working electrode potential will not be influenced through the reactions that take place. Data may be obtained with X-Y recorder at slow scan that is less than 500 mV/second when storage oscilloscope at faster rates having scan rate upto 20,000 V/second have been used, thus ratio faster than 100 V/second are rarely practical because of IR Drop and changing current.

Figure: Instrumentation for Cyclic Voltammetry

O: Working electrode, →    Reference electrode, →       Auxiliary electrode