Oscillatory Kinetics in Heterogeneous Catalysis

TLDR: In this paper, the main lines in the development of the whole field of oscillatory surface reactions are presented, and the phenomenology and mechanisms which give rise to oscillations are presented before the more complicated aspects of spatiotemporal self-organization and chaotic dynamics are discussed.

Abstract: Practically by definition, heterogeneous catalytic reactions represent systems far from thermodynamic equilibrium, and therefore one can observe in such systems rate oscillations, spatiotemporal patterns and chaos--a group of phenomena which has been denoted ``dissipative structures`` by Prigogine. Although oscillatory kinetics in a heterogeneous chemical reaction system had been discovered quite early, it was only about 25 years ago that such phenomena were also found in heterogeneous catalysis by the group of Wicke, who observed rate oscillations in catalytic CO oxidation. Since then, oscillatory surface reactions have developed into a field of very active research. The purpose of the present paper is not to give a full account of all the experimental and theoretical work on oscillatory surface reactions, but to demonstrate the main lines in the development of the whole field. The paper is organized such that first the phenomenology and the mechanisms which give rise to oscillations are presented before the more complicated aspects of spatiotemporal self-organization and chaotic dynamics are discussed. 360 refs.