Synchronization of Chemical Micro-oscillators

Many phenomena of biological, physical, and chemical importance involve synchronization of oscillatory elements. We explore here, in several geometries, the behavior of diffusively coupled, nanoliter volume, aqueous drops separated by oil gaps and containing the reactants of the oscillatory Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction. A variety of synchronous regimes are found, including in- and antiphase oscillations, stationary Turing patterns, and more complex combinations of stationary and oscillatory BZ drops, including three-phase patterns. A model consisting of ordinary differential equations based on a simplified description of the BZ chemistry and diffusion of messenger (primarily inhibitory) species qualitatively reproduces most of the experimental results.