Quantitative Measurement of Intermediate Species in Sustained Belousov-Zhabotinsky Oscillations

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ja00524a003

Sustained Belousov-Zhabotinsky oscillations have been performed in an open continuous-fed reactor, controlled by a computer.A procedure of repeated storage and accumulation of the signal given by any kind of detector allows the identification of several intermediate species and their concentration measurement with a good accuracy.By means of spectrophotometric as well as potentiometric techniques we have so obtained the concentration time dependence of Ce³⁺, Ce⁴⁺, Br2, Br^-, bromomalonic compounds (BrMA), O2, and CO2.These species cannot account for the overall ligh t absorption in the UV range (280-320nm), so that at least another one, which we could not identify, is involved.A detailed analysis of our experimental results points out for a general agreement with the mechanism already proposed by Field, Koeros, and Noyes.