The resulting ‘duck-shaped’ plot is called a cyclic voltammogram

As the onset (Eonset) of oxidation is reached the current exponentially increases (b) as the analyte is being
oxidised at the working electrode surface. Here the process is under electrochemical control with the
current linearly increasing with increasing voltage with a constant concentration gradient of the analyte near
the electrode surface within the DDL.
The current response decreases from linearity as the analyte is depleted and the DDL grows in size. The
current reaches peak maximum at point c (anodic peak current (ipa) for oxidation at the anodic peak
potential (Epa). The process is now under mixed control: more positive potentials cause an increase in
current that is offset by a decreasing flux of analyte from further and further distance from the electrode
surface.
From this point the current is limited by the mass transport of analyte from the bulk to the DDL interface,
which is slow on the electrochemical timescale and therefore does not satisfy the Nernst equation. This
results in a decrease in current (d) as the potentials are scanned more positive until a steady-state is
reached where further increases in potential no longer has an effect.
Scan reversal to negative potentials (reductive scan) continues to oxidise the analyte until the applied
potential reaches the value where the oxidised analyte which has accumulated at the electrode surface can
be re-reduced (e).
The process for reduction mirrors that for the oxidation, only with an opposite scan direction and a cathodic
peak (ipc) at the cathodic peak potential (Epc) (f).The anodic and cathodic peak currents should be of equal
magnitude but with opposite sign provided that the process is reversible.