Period doubling and spatiotemporal chaos in periodically forced CO oxidation on Pt(110).

Periodic forcing of chemical turbulence in the catalytic CO oxidation on Pt(110) can induce a period doubling cascade to chaos. Using a forcing frequency near the second harmonic of the system's natural frequency, and carefully increasing the forcing amplitude, the system successively exhibits spiral wave turbulence, resonant pattern formation, and chaotic oscillations. In the latter case, global coupling induces strong spatial correlation.

Suppression of spatiotemporal chaos in the oscillatory CO oxidation on Pt(110) by focused laser light.

Chemical turbulence in the oscillatory catalytic CO oxidation on Pt(110) is suppressed by means of focused laser light. The laser locally heats the platinum surface which leads to a local increase of the oscillation frequency, and to the formation of a pacemaker which emits target waves. These waves slowly entrain the medium and suppress the spatiotemporal chaos present in the absence of laser light.

Pattern formation in 4:1 resonance of the periodically forced CO oxidation on Pt(110).

Periodically forced oscillatory reaction-diffusion systems may show complex spatiotemporal patterns. At high-frequency resonant forcing, multiple-phase patterns can be found. In the present work, the dynamics of turbulent CO oxidation on Pt(110), forced with the fourth harmonic of the system's natural frequency, is investigated.

Control of spatiotemporal chaos in catalytic CO oxidation by laser-induced pacemakers.

Control of spatiotemporal chaos is achieved in the catalytic oxidation of CO on Pt(110) by localized modification of the kinetic properties of the surface chemical reaction. In the experiment, a small temperature heterogeneity is created on the surface by a focused laser beam. This heterogeneity constitutes a pacemaker and starts to emit target waves.

Optical imaging of pattern formation: reflection anisotropy microscopy applied to globally coupled oscillatory CO-oxidation.

A reflection anisotropy microscope (RAM) creates the contrast in its images from a change in the polarization orientation of reflected light from a surface. This may stem from local variations of the reconstruction of a surface, being initiated by changes in an adsorption layer. The advantages and disadvantages of a recently improved RAM versus other optical imaging techniques are discussed.

Oscillatory thermomechanical instability of an ultrathin catalyst.

Because of the small thermal capacity of ultrathin ( approximately 200 nanometers) metal single crystals, it is possible to explore the coupling of catalytic and thermal action at low pressures. We analyzed a chemothermomechanical instability in this regime, in which catalytic reaction kinetics interact with heat transfer and mechanical buckling to create oscillations. These interacting components are separated and explored through experimentation, mathematical modeling, and scientific computation, and an explanation of the phenomenon emerges from their synthesis.

Front initiation on microdesigned composite catalysts.

We first briefly review the subject of spatiotemporal pattern formation on microdesigned composite catalysts. One of the most significant interaction mechanisms between different reacting domains (consisting of different metal catalysts such as Pt and Rh, coupled through surface diffusion) is the initiation of reaction fronts at the interface between them. We then explore in some detail the effect of two-dimensional composite geometry on this basic building block of composite catalyst dynamics.

Pattern formation during the CO-oxidation involving subsurface oxygen.

This paper focuses on subsurface oxygen and its influence on pattern formation during CO-oxidation on platinum surfaces. For the observation of spatiotemporal pattern formation during catalytic reactions the photoelectron emission microscope (PEEM) has proven to be an excellent real-time imaging instrument, capable of tracking local work function changes. The existence of subsurface oxygen on platinumlike surfaces has been extensively discussed and for palladium its presence has been clearly established during rate oscillations.