Chemo-mechanical energy transduction through interfacial instability

Clarifying the mechanism of chemo-mechanical energy transduction under isothermal conditions has been an important goal in nonlinear science. We have approached this problem by creating experimental model systems and proposing a new hypothesis. In this article, we describe some chemically nonequilibrium systems such as the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction, a camphor disk on water, a mixture of water and alcohol, and a reactive droplet on a glass plate. In these systems, various kinds of mechanical motion are driven by nonequilibricity. These results stress the importance of the boundary condition. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.