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Polymer Bulletin, Vol.54, No.3, 215-223, 2005
Control of wave formation pattern in self-oscillating gel by addition of hydroquinone in the Belosov-Zhabotinsky reaction solution
We have investigated the effect of solution composition on the pattern of traveling wave formation in self-oscillating gel in which a metal catalyst for the Belousov-Zhabotinsky(BZ) reaction is covalently bonded to the gel matrix. The reaction solution contains all reactants for the BZ reaction except the catalyst. The gel was synthesized by the co-polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide(NIPAAm) and Ru(bpY)(3)(2+) catalyst monomer. To vary the composition of the environmental solution for the oscillation reaction, we added a small amount of hydroquinone to the BZ solution since hydroquinone is a good reagent inducing a characteristic wave pattern in the BZ type oscillation system. The experimental results show that the pattern of wave formation in the self-oscillating gel is influenced greatly by a change of the environmental condition of the solution composition for the oscillation reaction without other environmental change such as temperature and pH.