Coexistence of two bifurcation regimes in a closed ferroin-catalyzed Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction

The ferroin-catalyzed Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction was studied in a batch reactor under anaerobic conditions and was found to evolve through two separated regimes of complex oscillations. Significantly, the two bifurcation regimes exhibited qualitatively different dependence on compositions of the reaction mixture, i.e., initial concentrations of bromate, sulfuric acid, malonic acid, and ferroin. The reaction temperature also showed opposite effects on the two bifurcation regimes, in which complexities of the first bifurcation regime were enhanced while oscillations in the second bifurcation regime became simpler as a result of decreasing temperature. Numerical simulations with a 12-variable model developed specifically for the ferroin-BZ system were able to reproduce transient complex oscillations observed in experiments. These calculations further illustrated that reactions such as ferroin and HOBr, ferroin and HBrO2, and ferriin and Br- were not essential in describing complex dynamics of the ferroin-BZ reaction.