Hi Research Gate,
A little background first: I'm a physicist, and I've done most of my work studying how chemical reactions move when they're pushed around by fluid flows. The trouble with this is I'm very limited because I don't know a lot of chemistry. I understand chemistry when I see it, but need to have a reaction identified before I can start trying to understand it. What this means is I have done most of my research on a single chemical reaction (The Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction). The interesting phenomena around the BZ reaction, weren't my focus though, it just happened to be a reaction I knew how to make and that I could easily watch with a camera. However, I now want to go a little deeper into what's happening and the complex chemistry of BZ just gets in the way of understanding.
So I am asking you all if anyone has a suggestion for some interesting chemical reactions. For now I'm especially looking for reactions that 1) occur in the aqueous or liquid phase (so they can flow but are easy to contain) 2) Will sit inert until activated (now ideally I'd like the reaction to be completely mixed but need a catalyst to start an autocatalytic reaction, but I'd also take reactions where nothing happens until the second ingredient is added).
I'm also especially interested in reactions where it's easy to visually tell one state of reaction from another (say using an indicator dye). It would also be good if I could make the reaction from pretty standard chemistry supplies. Lastly I'd of course like reactions with practical import, say if the reaction makes something useful.
I know it's quite a list of things, but I'm hoping some helpful chemists (or even high school chemistry teachers really. As I said I'm not an expert on chemistry), are willing to pitch some suggestions.
If it's a reaction you study but don't want to deal with fluid dynamics on, great! I'm plenty willing to talk about what I'm trying to do.
~Thanks for reading, and hope you can help!
Thomas
Well, if I were you, I wouldn't "mix a chemical reaction", just a reaction mixture. I wouldn't "move a chemical reaction" either. The chemical reaction also cannot be "pushed around by fluid flows" or "flow". Unfortunately, there are more awkward or incorrect phrases in your text. It is clear that you are a physicist and not a chemist.
As the text shows, you are interested in oscillating reactions. It can also be assumed that autocatalytic reactions taking place in flow reactors, especially in CSTR reactors, are of interest. In the case of autocatalytic reactions in continuous stirred tank reactors, multiple stationary states, transients, concentration oscillations, and chaos are indeed possible. There is a lot of literature on this topic.
I recommend that you cooperate with a chemical engineer. Because reactors, reactor design and reaction engineering are among the primary subjects of the Chemical Engineering discipline. Reaction engineering is a very difficult and specialized field of research.
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