The Briggs-Rauscher Iodine Oscillator

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by Jay, 11 years ago
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This reaction is an extremely interesting reaction that is a rare phenomenon in chemistry - an oscillating reaction. Three clear solutions are combined, and the color gradually changes to amber. Suddenly, the whole thing goes dark blue! This remains for a bit, then fades back into amber and the whole cycle repeats. The full reaction mixture is a stew of many different chemicals: Solution A: 0.2M KIO3 0.77M H2SO4 Solution B: 0.15M malonic acid 0.02M MnSO4 Starch (very tiny amount, since it is only slightly soluble) Solution C: 4.0M H2O2 The three are combined together in equal amounts. There are as many as 30 different reactions happening simultaneously during the reaction. The paper I mention that talks about this in great detail is titled "The Oscillatory Briggs-Rauscher Reaction. 3. A Skeleton Mechanism for Oscillations" by Noyes and Furrow. I found it online someplace, but can't seem to locate it again for free. Anyways I hope my explanation was helpful! It took me a while to get a good grasp of it myself. As always, thanks for watching and if you have any questions please let me know.