Thermokinetic Oscillator

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For a thermokinetic oscillator, the reaction scheme is ,
. The second reaction is exothermic with a reaction enthalpy
; it has a substantial activation energy
. The concentration of component
is constant, the temperature of the surroundings is
, the density and specific heat of the reaction mixture are
and
, the area for heat transfer is
, the volume of the system is
,
,
, and
. The relevant rate equations are solved and plotted for
and
, the latter scaled up by 1000 for convenience.
Contributed by: Benson R. Sundheim (January 2012)
Open content licensed under CC BY-NC-SA
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The reaction produces heat, accelerating the reaction and reducing the concentration of . As you vary the parameters, the interplay of these opposing tendencies can produce oscillations and bifurcation behavior.
References
[1] P. Gray and S. K. Scott, Chapter 4, Chemical Oscillations and Instabilities, New York: Oxford University Press, 1990.
[2] D. A. Frank-Kamenetskii and I. E. Salnikov. Zhur. Fiz. Khim., 17, 1943 p. 79.
[3] xmds.org. thermkin.xmds. (Dec 28 2012)
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