Analogies between chemical and biological processes occurring in autowave mode

Abstract

On the examples of frontal polymerization, tumor growth, and propagation of the nerve impulse, we examined nonlinear phenomena in chemistry and biology. The results of theoretical and experimental studies on the loss of stability of thermal waves of frontal polymerization were presented. The stationarity loss limits for the reactions of epoxide resin curing, polymerization of metal-containing acrylamide complexes, and copolymerization of methyl methacrylate and styrene in the presence of single-walled nanotubes were experimentally studied and theoretically calculated. It was shown that stability of the frontal process waves depends on the heat balance of the exothermic polymerization reaction. Nonlinear phenomena at variation of the polymerization kinetic parameters were studied. The limits of the transition from stationary to nonstationary mode were determined on the basis of experimental data and theoretical calculations. Theoretical study of a diffusion-kinetic model of tumor growth was discussed; the wave nature of the propagation of tumors was shown. The FitzHugh–Nagumo model was studied in view of the diffusion equation; the possibility of formation of the oscillatory modes during the nerve impulse propagation was demonstrated.