auxiliary electrode balances the working electrode, but in order to know how much potential it has to add or remove it relies on the reference electrode. The reference electrode has a known reduction potential. The auxiliary electrode tries to keep the reference electrode at a certain reduction potential and to do this it has to balance the working electrode. Characterization Linear sweep voltammetry can identify unknown species and determine the concentration of solutions. E1/2 can be used to identify the unknown species while the height of the limiting current can determine the concentration. The sensitivity of current changes vs. voltage can be increased by increasing the scan rate. Higher potentials per second result in more oxidation/reduction of a species at the surface of the working electrode. Variations For reversible reactions cyclic voltammetry can be used to find information about the forward reaction and the reverse reaction. Like linear sweep voltammetry, cyclic voltammetry applies a linear potential over time and at a certain potential the potentiostat will reverse the potential applied and sweep back to the beginning point. Cyclic voltammetry provides information about the oxidation and reduction reactions. Applications While cyclic voltammetry is applicable to most cases where linear sweep voltammetry is used, there are some instances where linear sweep voltammetry is more useful. In cases where the reaction is irreversible cyclic voltammetry will not give any additional data that linear sweep voltammetry would give us. In one example, linear voltammetry was used to examine direct methane production via a biocathode. Since the production of methane from is an irreversible reaction, cyclic voltammetry did not present any distinct advantage over linear sweep voltammetry. This group found that the biocathode produced higher current densities than a plain carbon cathode and that methane can be produced from a direct electric current without the need of hydrogen gas. See also Voltammetry Cyclic voltammetry Electroanalytical methods References Electroanalytical methods