Pulse Propagation in the Catalytic Oxidation of Carbon Monoxide on Platinum

Abstract

Infrared imaging is used to measure the spatiotemporal patterns associated with the oscillatory oxidation of carbon monoxide on the surface of polycrystalline platinum thin films at atmospheric pressure. An annular geometry restricts the dynamics to be quasi-one-dimensional, and the amplitude of the temperature oscillations is small (0.35 K), so that the reaction conditions are approximately isothermal. A propagating pulse is observed which rotates around the annulus. To our knowledge, this is the first observation of pulse propagation in this chemical reaction at atmospheric pressure.