Year of Award

2012

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

Chemistry

Department or School/College

Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry

Committee Chair

Richard J. Field

Commitee Members

Michael DeGrandpre, Donald Kiely, Robert Yokelson, Jesse Johnson

Keywords

anomalous dispersion, BZ reaction, chemical kinetics

Publisher

University of Montana

Abstract

A modified six-variable Oregonator model presented here successfully reproduces a significant portion of the behavior observed in the Ferroin-catalyzed cyclohexanedione variant of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (CHD-BZ) reaction. The phenomena of anomalous velocity dispersion (in which following waves may catch up to, rather than fall behind an initial excitation wave), wave-stacking, and backfiring have been successfully reproduced numerically as resulting from non-monotonic [Br-] decay to the steady state in the wake of an excitation pulse. The non-monotonic decay is seen as a "dip" in [Br-] following the passage of a chemical wave. This dip in [Br-] decay curve allows a following wave to accelerate and catch up to the initial wave. The origin of anomalous dispersion as the result of such a non-monotonic decay curve in [Br-] has been suggested previously by Steinbock et al. and Szalai et al. However, the work presented here is the first successful representation of anomalous wave-velocity dispersion using a chemical model. This model is based on the well-understood chemistry of the Oregonator model of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction, coupled to a second pathway (based on chemistry related to uncatalyzed bromate oscillators) for the oxidation of organic substrate to provide the new dynamics.

Download

Share

COinS
 

© Copyright 2012 Ryan Boger