Oscillations in Homogeneous Systems

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Abstract
This manuscript reviews the present understanding of homogeneous chemical oscillators except for reactions occurring in gas phase or during enzyme catalysis. The best understood systems are driven by bromate oxidation of organic compounds, and many unusual temporal and spatial phenomena are explicable by a fairly simple mechanism. Progress is being made toward understanding oscillators based on iodate and hydrogen peroxide reactions. Nucleation phenomena are strongly implicated in gas evolution oscillators such as the dehydration of formic acid and the decomposition of ammonium nitrite. No oscillators based on sulfur chemistry are yet understood. Photochemically driven oscillators offer a rich potential that has not yet been exploited. Several condensed phase systems exhibit interesting spatial periodicities that involve coupling of diffusion with other processes. Possible mechanisms of oscillators are subject to kinetic, thermodynamic, and chemical constraints which are discussed briefly.