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Title

Employing Complex Kinetic Diagrams to Understand the Belousov-Zhabotinskii Reaction
Author

Scot T. Martin
Organization: Harvard University
Department: Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences
URL: http://people.deas.harvard.edu/~smartin/
Journal / Anthology

The Mathematica Journal
Year: 2001
Volume: 8
Issue: 1
Page range: 114-125
Description

In contrast to many physical phenomena such as a swinging pendulum, chemical reactions must approach equilibrium monotonically. However, far from the equilibrium, concentrations of chemical species can oscillate during the time course of the reactions. This interesting branch of kinetics is exemplified by the Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction. After an induction period, the color of the solution changes between clear and yellow with a period of two minutes for several hours. In this article, a general, convenient chemical kinetics solver is employed in conjunction with complex kinetic diagrams to understand the coupling of chemical reactions that yield chemical oscillations.
Subject

*Science > Chemistry