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Light‐Modulated Intermittent Wave Groups in a Diffusively Fed Reactive Gel
Author(s) -
Luo Hainan,
Wang Chenlong,
Ren Lin,
Gao Qingyu,
Pan Changwei,
Epstein Irving R.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
angewandte chemie international edition
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 5.831
H-Index - 550
eISSN - 1521-3773
pISSN - 1433-7851
DOI - 10.1002/anie.201600889
Subject(s) - belousov–zhabotinsky reaction , chemical physics , catalysis , reaction–diffusion system , diffusion , ruthenium , flow (mathematics) , materials science , amplitude , chemistry , photochemistry , thermodynamics , mechanics , physics , optics , organic chemistry
Inspired by the biological growth that takes place in time‐varying external fields such as light or temperature, we design an open reaction‐diffusion system in order to investigate growth dynamics. The system is composed of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) oscillatory reaction coupled with a copolymer gel consisting of NIPAAm and a photosensitive ruthenium catalyst. When subject to a unidirectional flow of the BZ reactants, the system displays groups of chemical waves whose structure depends upon the period and amplitude of illumination. Simulations of a modified six‐variable Oregonator model exhibit all the complex wave groups found in our experiments. Studying this growth structure may aid in understanding the influence of periodic environmental variation on complex growth processes in living systems.