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Instrumentation for corrosion testing

Most electrochemical work with an electrochemical cell is achieved using what is called a potentiostat. A potentiostat is an electronic device that controls the voltage difference between a working electrode and a reference electrode. Both electrodes are contained in an electrochemical cell. The potentiostat implements this control by injecting current into the cell through an auxiliary electrode. In almost all applications, the potentiostat measures the current flow between the working and auxiliary electrodes. The controlled variable in a potentiostat is the cell potential and the measured variable is the cell current. A potentiostat typically functions with an electrochemical cell containing three electrodes and that is true for both field probes and lab cells (reference):