Recent advances in the temporal and spatiotemporal dynamics induced by bromate-sulfite-based pH-oscillators

The bromate-sulfite reaction-based pH-oscillators represent one of the most useful subgroup among the chemical oscillators. They provide strong H+-pulses which can generate temporal oscillations in other systems coupled to them and they show wide variety of spatiotemporal dynamics when they are carried out in different gel reactors. Some examples are discussed. When pH-dependent chemical and physical processes are linked to a bromate-sulfite-based oscillator, rhythmic changes can appear in the concentration of some cations and anions, in the distribution of the species in a pH-sensitive stepwise complex formation, in the oxidation number of the central cation in a chelate complex, in the volume or the desorption-adsorption ability of a piece of gel. These reactions are quite suitable for generating spatiotemporal patterns in open reactors. Many reaction-diffusion phenomena, moving and stationary patterns, have been recently observed experimentally using different reactor configurations, which allow exploring the effect of different initial and boundary conditions. Here, we summarize the most relevant aspects of these experimental and numerical studies on bromate-sulfite reaction-based reaction-diffusion systems.

Automated summary

Bromate-sulfite reaction-based pH-oscillators are highly useful in chemical oscillators, providing strong H+ pulses and displaying diverse spatiotemporal dynamics in various gel reactors. These reactions are suitable for generating spatiotemporal patterns in open reactors, with recent experiments observing reaction-diffusion phenomena and different patterns using different reactor configurations.