Chemical Oscillations and Instabilities: Non-linear Chemical Kinetics: 21 (International Series of Monographs on Chemistry) - Hardcover

Gray, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198556462 ISBN 13: 9780198556466

Publisher: Clarendon Press, 1990

Synopsis

Scientists in many fields are now expressing considerable interest in non-linearity and the ideas of oscillations and chaos. Chemical reactions provide perfect examples of these phenomena, as oscillating reactions, explosions, ignition, travelling waves, patterns, quasiperiodicity and chaos are all features of chemical kinetics. This book introduces non-linear phenomena in chemical kinetics using simple model schemes. These models involve chemical feedback, such as chain branching, autocatalysis and self-heating. The emphasis is on physical and pictorial representation and on identifying those gross features which are essential. The experimental conditions under which such behaviour will occur can be predicted using simple mathematical recipes, and these are also included. The first part of the book begins with a discussion of long-lived oscillations for autocatalytic or exothermic reactions in closed vessels. Stationary states, bistability and oscillations in continuous flow reactors and diffusion cells are then considered. This is followed by chemical wave propagation and by pattern selection and formation. Heterogeneous reactions are discussed, as they can also exhibit bistability and oscillations. Complex oscillations, quasiperiodicity and chemical chaos, either forced or spontaneous, are introduced. Part 2 deals with real experimental systems, describing observed experimental behaviour and its interpretation in terms of the underlying chemical mechanisms or simplified models. The Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction is discussed in some detail as the most extensively studied system, and the behaviour of important gas phase reactions is presented.

About this title

Review

The book's aim is to inform, to teach, and to correct inaccuracies-it is never boring...It can be thoroughly recommended. (Angewandte Chemie)

The book is a first-class scholarly monograph."Faraday Transactions

About the Author

Peter Gray is also Visiting Professor, University of Leeds

Edition details

• Publisher: Clarendon Press
• Publication date: 1990
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0198556462
• ISBN 13: 9780198556466
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 469