Oscillations in the Bromomalonic Acid/Bromate System Catalyzed by [Ru(phen)₃]²⁺

Abstract

We investigated the oscillatory behavior of a BZ system with bromomalonic acid and bromate as substrates and with [Ru(phen) 3 ] SO 4 as a catalyst. The observed oscillations can be well modeled with a theory based on two different feedback loops originally developed for a corresponding BZ system with [Ru(bipy) 3 ] SO 4 as a catalyst. Furthermore, we have reexamined the decomposition of acidic bromate. We conclude that the products of this reaction are HOBr and O 2 rather than HOBr and perbromate; the rate constant for the decomposition reaction turns out to be 1000 times smaller for 1 M sulfuric acid solution than expected from earlier experiments performed with 3 M sulfuric acid solutions.