Cyclic voltammetry is the workhorse of electroanalytical chemistry. You apply a linearly changing potential to the working electrode, reverse the sweep at a chosen vertex, and record the current. The result is a current-voltage curve that fingerprints the redox processes happening at the interface.
CV is usually the first experiment on a new material or analyte. It tells you which potentials cause current to flow, whether the process is reversible, and roughly how fast the electron transfer is.
The instrument applies a triangular potential waveform. Starting at the initial potential, it ramps linearly to the first vertex, reverses direction, ramps to the second vertex, and either stops or repeats.
Scan rate (V/s) controls how fast the ramp moves and therefore the timescale of the experiment. Faster scans probe faster electron transfer but reduce sensitivity to slow processes.
The potentiostat samples current continuously. The plot of current versus potential is the cyclic voltammogram.
Initial potential(V)
Typical: 0 V vs. reference
Where the sweep starts. Usually chosen away from any expected redox peak so the system settles first.
Vertex 1 / Vertex 2(V)
Typical: ±0.5 to ±1.5 V around the expected peak
Forward and reverse turning points. Bracket the redox couples of interest, but not so wide that the solvent or electrode decomposes.
Scan rate(V/s)
Typical: 10 to 200 mV/s for routine work · up to 50 V/s on LP1
How fast the potential changes. Lower rates give sharper peaks for reversible systems; higher rates probe kinetics. The LP1 reaches 50 V/s, which is fast enough for thin-film kinetics and most surface-confined processes that tie up slower potentiostats.
Cycles
Typical: 1 to 5
Number of forward-reverse sweeps. One for exploration, more for stability or film-growth studies.
Sample interval(mV)
Typical: 1 to 5 mV
Potential step between data points. Smaller intervals give more detail but larger files.
CV runs on every ECA: LP1, 5M, 500k, and Zero. The LP1 supports scan rates up to 50 V/s, fast enough for thin-film kinetics and surface-confined redox that most lab potentiostats cannot follow. In Sensitify Studio, pick New experiment → Cyclic voltammetry, set your vertex potentials and scan rate, and press Run. The software plots live and exports multi-cycle data as CSV with a cycle column for post-processing in Python, MATLAB, or Excel.