Chirality observed in a driven ruthenium-catalyzed Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction model

Abstract

Chirality is commonly associated with the spatial geometry of the atoms composing molecules, the biochemistry of living organisms, and spin properties. In sharp contrast, here we report chirality found in numerically computed stability diagrams of a chemical reaction governed by purely classical (that is, not quantum) equations, namely in a photochemically periodically perturbed ruthenium-catalyzed Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction model. This novel chirality offers opportunities to explore hitherto unsuspected properties of purely classical chemical oscillators.