Nature 351, 132 - 135 (09 May 1991); doi:10.1038/351132a0

Cross-membrane coupling of chemical spatiotemporal patterns

David Winston, Mukesh Arora, Jerzy Maselko, Vilmos Gáspár & Kenneth Showalter^*

Department of Chemistry, West Virginia University, Morgantown, West Virginia 26506-6045, USA
^*To whom correspondence should be addressed

CHEMICAL systems may communicate by exchange of common species through mass transport, and such coupling may give rise to dynamical complexity beyond that possible in the independent systems^1–5. We report here on dynamical behaviour arising from the diffusive coupling of chemical spatiotemporal patterns across a membrane. Chemical waves appear on Nation membranes that are loaded with ferroin catalyst and bathed in a mixture of the reagents of the Belousov–Zhabotinsky oscillatory reaction. The waves on each side of the membrane couple by diffusive transport through the membrane. The coupling initially gives rise to the spontaneous appearance of spiral waves, and subsequent behaviour reveals several distinct phases of evolution, ultimately leading to complete spatiotemporal entrainment.

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