Abstract: A potentiostat is a fundamental piece of equipment for the study of corrosion electrochemistry and research into the application of virtual technology to potentiostats is becoming increasingly important. The functions of virtual potentiostats can be controlled and implemented using software instead of complex hardware. They would be capable of not only meeting the demands of a variety of electrochemical tests, but would also be more flexible offering a simpler structure and operating parameters. This would represent a significant development in virtual electrochemical corrosion instrumentation. In this paper, a virtual potentiostat measurement system VEC11-A (virtual electrochemical corrosion test system) has been designed based on LabVIEW. The virtual instrument system of the potentiostat, based on the proportionintegration- differentiation (PID) control technology operated under the LabVIEW 2010 programming platform, was used to determine corrosion potential measurement, polarization curves, linear polarization curves, cyclic voltammetry curves, dynamic potential anode passivation curves, and constant potential step curves. In contrast with normal electrochemical instruments, the system worked well for electrolyzers of different impedances.

Key words: Virtual instrument, Steady-state polarization curve, Potentiostat, PID control, LabVIEW