Issue 15, 2010
Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
Patterns in the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction in water-in-oil microemulsion induced by a temperature gradient
Jorge Carballido-Landeira,ab Vladimir K. Vanaga and Irving R. Epstein*a
a Department of Chemistry and Volen Center for Complex Systems, MS 015, Brandeis University, Waltham, USA
E-mail: epstein@brandeis.edu
b Group of Nonlinear Physics, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain
We investigate the effect of changing temperature in the ferroin-catalysed Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction dispersed in the water nanodroplets of a water-in-oil aerosol OT (AOT) microemulsion, which undergoes a temperature-induced percolation transition at about 38 °C. We observe stationary Turing patterns at temperatures in the range 15–35 °C and bulk oscillations at T = 40–55 °C. When a temperature gradient ΔT is applied normal to a thin layer of the BZ–AOT reaction mixture, the range of patterns observed is dramatically expanded. Anti-phase oscillatory Turing patterns, leaping waves, and chaotic waves emerge, depending on the temperature gradient and the average temperature. These new patterns originate from the coupling between a low temperature Turing mode and a high temperature Hopf mode. Simulations with a simple model of the BZ–AOT system give good agreement with our experimental results.
Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010,12, 3656-3665
J. Carballido-Landeira, V. K. Vanag and I. R. Epstein, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., 2010, 12, 3656 DOI: 10.1039/B919278F
Jorge Carballido-Landeira
Vladimir K. Vanag
Irving R. Epstein