A new type of minimal bromate oscillator that could exhibit spontaneous oscillations in a closed system was developed in this research. The newly developed oscillator contains a reagent benzoquinone, which does not react with metal catalyst ferroin/ferriin, but modulates the evolution of bromide ions. Since the role of the organic substrate is only the bromine removal, we define this system as a batch minimal bromate oscillator. The bromination of benzoquinone was confirmed with NMR and mass spectrometry measurements. Experiments showed that transient oscillations emerged in a closed reactor when benzoquinone concentration was above a threshold level. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.