Photocontrolled oscillatory dynamics in the bromate-1,4-cyclohexanedione reaction

A Magnetic Gated Nanofluidic Based on the Integration of a Superhydrophilic Nanochannels and a Reconfigurable Ferrofluid

The design of intelligent gating in nanoscale is the subject of intense research motivated by a broad potential impact on science and technology. However, the existing designs require complex modification and are unstable, which restrict their practical applications. Here, a magnetic gated nanofluidic is reported based on the integration of superhydrophilic membranes and reconfigurable ferrofluid, which realizes the gating of the nanochannel by adjusting the steric configuration of the ferrofluid. This system could achieve ultrahigh gating ratio up to 10 000 and excellent stability up to 130 cycles without attenuation. Experiments and theoretical calculations demonstrate that the switch is controlled by the synergy of magnetic force and the interfacial tension. The introduction of ferrofluid and superhydrophilic nanochannels in this work presents an important paradigm for the nanofluidic systems and opens a new and promising avenue to various developments in the fields of materials science, which may be utilized in medical devices, nanoscale synthesis, and environmental analysis.

The effect of acetone on the dynamics of temporal oscillations and waves in the ruthenium-catalyzed Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction

The periods of temporal oscillations and waves significantly decrease with increasing acetone concentration. At low concentrations, regular wave patterns are observed with prolonged lifetimes. However, for higher concentrations the lifetime is shortened and irregular patterns are formed.

Collective reaction behavior of an oscillating system coupled with an excitable reaction

The collective reaction behavior of limit cycles coupled to a nonoscillatory forcing is investigated experimentally and computationally. The coupled chemical system is constructed by adding 1,4-cyclohexanedione (CHD), a species which is capable of forming an oscillator with acidic bromate, into the cerium-catalyzed Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction. Two levels of coupling exist in the system: (1) through autocatalytic reactions with bromine dioxide radicals and (2) via reactions with oxidized metal catalysts. Experiments illustrate that there is an optimum [1,4-CHD]/[cerium] ratio for inducing complex oscillations, whereas in the 1,4-CHD and malonic acid concentration phase plane two resonant ratios are observed for the onset of complex behavior. In addition, bromate, the oxidant for both suboscillators, also exhibits subtle influences on the complexity of the collective reaction behavior. The experimental observations are qualitatively reproduced with the Field-Koros-Noyes mechanism, modified to account for the coupling reactions with the 1,4-CHD-bromate system.

Complex behavior in coupled bromate oscillators

In this study, coupled bromate-oscillators constructed by adding 1,4-cyclohexanedione (1,4-CHD) to the ferroin-catalyzed Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction are investigated in a batch reactor under anaerobic conditions. Various complex behaviors such as sequential oscillations and bursting phenomena are observed. At low concentrations of ferroin or malonic acid (MA), the development of sequential oscillations is found to depend on the ratio of [1,4-CHD]/[ferroin] and [1,4-CHD]/[MA] rather than their absolute concentrations. As the concentration of MA or ferroin was increased gradually, however, the minimum 1,4-CHD concentration required to induce complex oscillations reaches a plateau. Perturbations by light illustrate that the first oscillatory window is governed by the ferroin-MA-BZ mechanism, whereas the 1,4-CHD-bromate oscillator plays a prominent role during the non-oscillatory evolution and the second oscillatory window. Our conclusion is further supported by numerical simulations in which sequential oscillations observed in experiments are qualitatively reproduced by a modified FKN mechanism.

Stirring-Controlled Bifurcations in the 1,4-Cyclohexanedione−Bromate Reaction

We report the experimental observation that stirring in a closed 1,4-cyclohexanedione-bromate reaction can induce transitions not only between oscillatory and nonoscillatory states but also between simple and period-doubled oscillations. Notably, the transition from simple to complex oscillations occurs as a result of increasing stirring rate. When illumination was employed to characterize the importance of microfluctuations of concentrations, the threshold stirring rate for inducing a bifurcation was found to increase proportionally to the intensity of the applied light. Numerical simulations with an existing model illustrate that the experimental phenomena could be qualitatively reproduced by considering effects of mixing on diffusion-limited radical reactions, namely, the disproportion reaction of hydroquinone radicals.