Coupled chemical oscillators on a Pt/SiO2 catalyst disk

✍ Scribed by H.U. Onken; E.E. Wolf

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 549 KB
• Volume: 43
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0009-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/0009-2509(88)87111-2

✦ Synopsis

Oscillatory reaction rates were investigated during CO and ethylene oxidation on three thin disks with different compositions of active Pt/SiOz catalyst and inactive silica. A disk with a single active area of millimeter size, exhibited regular synchronized oscillations, whereas a similar disk with two active areas shows the superposition of two regular oscillators with weak coupling between them via heat conduction. When a disk made of catalyst only is used, oscillations appear chaotic and irregular with different areas of the catalysts oscillating independently. A mechanism involving the reignition of crystallites and the propagation of this process in relation to the spatial distribution of the catalyst is proposed to explain the results.