Journal of Physical Chemistry A, Vol.118, No.5, 815-821, 2014
A New System for Studying Spatial Front Instabilities: The Supercatalytic Chlorite-Trithionate Reaction
We show that the chlorite-trithionate reaction is "supercatalytic"; i.e., the formal kinetic order of the autocatalyst H+ is 2. A simple model is proposed and discussed to describe the unusual concentration dependencies of one-dimensional front propagation found experimentally. It is also demonstrated that at relatively wide concentration ranges the linear two-dimensional front initiated loses its stability, giving rise to an appearance of cellular structures in a convection-free system. Compared to the chlorite-tetrathionate reaction, however, this system is much more stable at alkaline conditions, even for hours; therefore, no side reactions can be taken into consideration to check whether they may have any side effects on the evolution of spatiotemporal structures.