Photo-response of the bromate-sulfite chemical oscillator with tris-(bipyridine)ruthenium(II) as a catalyst

Photo-response of the chemical oscillator composed of BrO3−, SO32− and Ru(bpy)32+ in the acidic aqueous solution was examined in a flow system. After establishing the dark state diagram, state diagrams have been determined taking P (the illumination light power) as one of the external parameters. In the P versus [SO32−] plane, the bifurcation between the reduced steady state and the oscillatory or oxidized steady state was found to be independent of P, occurring at a fixed critical concentration of SO32−. Qualitative discussions are given for this and other characteristic features in the system containing SO32− as a reductant.