Abstract

The present investigation pertains to the effect of surfactants on the oscillatory behavior of the catalyzed Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction having pyrogallol as organic substrate in a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR) at 30±0.1 ^ºC. The surfactants used in this study are sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) as the anionic surfactant, cetyl trimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as the cationic surfactant and triton x-100 (TX-100) as the neutral surfactant. The results revealed that the addition of the surfactants above their critical micelle concentration (cmc) influenced the oscillatory parameters with induction period showing a definite variation with the increasing concentration of aforesaid surfactants. It is noteworthy to mention that the ability of micelles to selectively compartmentalize ions and molecules may account for their effects on the induction period, amplitude and time period of the BZ system under investigation.

Keywords

Bromate oscillator, Pyrogallol, Micelles, Oscillations