This research, part of the Experimental and Computational Physical Chemistry Programs, is in the area of Chemical Kinetics. It will theoretically and experimentally investigate oscillatory chemical reactions. Mechanistic investigations of a number of oscillatory systems will be performed. These studies will employ both classical experimental methods and fast reaction techniques such as stopped-flow as well as extensive computer simulation. Rate laws and rate constants will be determined for several elementary processes that play important roles in these systems. Coupled chemical oscillators will also be investigated including those that arise when two oscillators interact either via mass flow or through common chemical species. New computation methods will be used to explain the experimentally obtained results including the effects of stirring and mixing, the propagation of waves of chemical reaction under the influence of a gravitational field, the influence of electric fields on the propagation of chemical waves when ions play an important role in the chemistry of the reaction, and reactions in which the reaction time varies stochastically.
