Nonlinear Chemical Dynamics

Brandeis University, Waltham MA

Investigators

Abstract

Irving R. Epstein and Anatol Zhabotinsky of Brandeis University are supported by an award from the Theoretical and Computational Chemistry program for research in nonlinear chemical dynamics. The award is supported with partial co-funding by the Division of Mathematical Sciences and the Office of International Science and Engineering at NSF. The PIs are designing new chemical oscillators using commercially available enzymes and substrates and are using these systems for pattern engineering. The studies employ both experimental and computational techniques. They are also doing research to construct the first pH oscillators that will operate under batch conditions. This research is being carried out in collaboration with investigators in Hungary. The expectation is that these reactions might be useful in the development of drug delivery systems and molecular motors or sensors. A collaborative study involving scientists in the United Kingdom in which magnetic resonance imaging will be used to explore three-dimensional patterns in a reaction diffusion micro-emulsion system (the BZ-AOT system) developed in the PI's laboratory. The study will, in addition, probe the effects of coupling between patterns in different layers in several oscillating chemical reactions. Finally, the PIs are studying the effects on pattern formation of cross-diffusion, a phenomenon in which the movement of one species through space is influenced by gradients in the concentrations of other species. The latter study involves a collaboration with scientists in Italy in which experiments using the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility will be used to investigate and compare the detailed structures in the BZ-AOT system with a phospholipid system. The work is having a broad impact on our understanding of pattern formation in chemical systems and a further broad impact through the involvement of students in international research.