Temperature dependence of the Oregonator model for the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction

Abstract

It is well known that temperature plays an important role in the chemical dynamics of Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reactions. The five-step Oregonator model of the BZ reaction has been elaborated here to investigate the temperature effect. The bifurcation dynamics has been calculated in the phase space spanned by initial reagents concentration ratio, stoichiometric factor and temperature. The combination of activation energies of the individual reaction steps governs the dependence of oscillation period and amplitude with temperature. The analysis reveals the existence of temperature limits beyond which no oscillations occur.