ABSTRACT
The development of one- and two-dimensional chemical Turing patterns characteristic of the chlorite-iodide-malonic acid/indicator reaction occurring in an open gel continuously-fed constantly-stirred tank reactor is investigated by means of a hexagonal planform nonlinear stability analysis applied to the appropriately scaled governing CDIMA indicator reaction-diffusion model system. Then, the theoretical predictions deduced from this pattern formation study are compared with experimental evidence relevant to the diffusive instabilities under examination. The latter consist of stripes (bands) and hexagonal arrays of spots (dots), honeycombs (nets), or black-eyes. Here, starch, for the case of the polyacrylamide gel, or the gel itself, for a polyvinyl alcohol gel, serves as the Turing pattern indicator. The main purpose of this analysis is to explain more fully the transition to such stationary symmetry-breaking structures when the malonic acid or iodine reservoir concentrations are varied.
