Oscillating Chemical Reactions
Submission Type
Event
Expected Graduation Date
2015
Location
Room E105, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University
Start Date
4-18-2015 11:00 AM
End Date
4-18-2015 12:00 PM
Disciplines
Chemistry | Physics
Abstract
Briggs-Rauscher reaction and Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction are two well-known, but still incompletely understood, nonlinear oscillating chemical reactions which are characterized by cyclic color changes. We have discovered that, in the absence of stirring, the time period of these nonlinear oscillations is affected by the depth of the solution in a container, and not just upon the specific chemistry, for example the concentrations of various reagents and reaction temperature. This makes it clear that macroscopic diffusion, over length scales that are comparable to the dimensions of the container, play an important role in these oscillations. We have therefore extended our study to explore the dynamics of two diffusion-coupled chemical oscillators, and look for possible novel and interesting modes of coupled nonlinear chemical oscillations. This is done by machining two small shallow wells in a thick Teflon sheet, connected by a narrow channel. The strength of diffusional coupling decreases as the length of the coupling channel increases. Reactions, for varying channel lengths, and chemistry, were recorded by a video camera, and the resulting videos were exported to Mathematica for an RGB analysis of various parts of the reaction chamber. The result of the study will be presented.
Oscillating Chemical Reactions
Room E105, Center for Natural Sciences, Illinois Wesleyan University
Briggs-Rauscher reaction and Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction are two well-known, but still incompletely understood, nonlinear oscillating chemical reactions which are characterized by cyclic color changes. We have discovered that, in the absence of stirring, the time period of these nonlinear oscillations is affected by the depth of the solution in a container, and not just upon the specific chemistry, for example the concentrations of various reagents and reaction temperature. This makes it clear that macroscopic diffusion, over length scales that are comparable to the dimensions of the container, play an important role in these oscillations. We have therefore extended our study to explore the dynamics of two diffusion-coupled chemical oscillators, and look for possible novel and interesting modes of coupled nonlinear chemical oscillations. This is done by machining two small shallow wells in a thick Teflon sheet, connected by a narrow channel. The strength of diffusional coupling decreases as the length of the coupling channel increases. Reactions, for varying channel lengths, and chemistry, were recorded by a video camera, and the resulting videos were exported to Mathematica for an RGB analysis of various parts of the reaction chamber. The result of the study will be presented.