Delay-induced chaos in catalytic surface reactions

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Abstract
Deterministic chaos related to a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations (the Feigenbaum transition) has been observed in the NO+CO and NO+H2 reactions on Pt(100). On a microscopic scale, these reactions are accompanied by the formation of 1×1 adsorbate islands due to the properties of the 1×1↔hex phase transition of Pt(100). A simple skeleton model is constructed that describes the behavior of a population of reacting islands which are globally coupled together via the gas phase. Investigations of this model show that the experimentally observed chaotic behavior can result from delays in the response of the reacting islands to partial pressure variations in the gas phase.