Chemical activity induces dynamical force with global structure in a reaction-diffusion-convection system

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2009 Jul;80(1 Pt 2):015306. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.80.015306. Epub 2009 Jul 29.

Abstract

We found a rotating global structure induced by the dynamical force of local chemical activity in a thin solution layer of excitable Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction coupled with diffusion. The surface flow and deformation associated with chemical spiral waves (wavelength about 1 mm) represents a global unidirectional structure and a global tilt in the entire Petri dish (100 mm in diameter), respectively. For these observations, we scanned the condition of hierarchal pattern selection. From this result, the bromomalonic acid has an important role to induce the rotating global structure. An interaction between a reaction-diffusion process and a surface-tension-driven effect leads to such hierarchal pattern with different scales.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't