Abstract
In Belousov–Zhabotinsky (BZ) type reactions, chemical oxidation waves can be exploited to produce reaction-diffusion processors. This paper reports on a new method of encapsulating BZ solution in a powder coating of either polyethylene (PE) or polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), to produce BZ liquid marbles (LMs). BZ LMs have solid–liquid interfaces compared to previously reported encapsulation systems, BZ emulsions and BZ vesicles. Oscillation studies on individual LMs established PE-coated LMs were easier to prepare and more robust than PTFE-coated LMs. Therefore, this coating was used to study BZ LMs positioned in ordered and disordered arrays. Sporadic transfer of excitation waves was observed between LMs in close proximity to each other. These results lay the foundations for future studies on information transmission and processing arrays of BZ LMs. Future work aims to elucidate the effect of other physical stimuli on the dynamics of chemical excitation waves within these systems.
Highlights
Introduction ce pteUnderstanding the dynamics of reaction-diffusion (RD) processes and their resultant systems has been of interest to researchers over the past few decades
This paper reports on the preparation of acidic liquid marbles (LMs) using BZ solution as the liquid encapsulated in a polymer powder coating of either PE or PTFE
It is envisaged that through this controlled wave transfer and varying the arrangement of LMs in arrays, propagation pathways can be controlled and lengthened [114]. This will allow the development of more complex computing devices using BZ LMs, in addition to observing the natural behaviour of the oscillating liquid media encapsulated in a powder coating, rather than in a liquid–liquid droplet system
Summary
Understanding the dynamics of reaction-diffusion (RD) processes and their resultant systems has been of interest to researchers over the past few decades. BZ reactions involve the oxidation of an organic substrate, typically malonic acid, by bromate ions in the presence of an acid, typically sulphuric acid, and a one electron transfer metal ion redox catalyst, e.g. ferroin [1, 13,14,15]. These reactions have proved to be potential media for developing future and emergent computing devices based on the interaction of chemical wave-fragments. A substantial number of theoretical studies and experimental prototypes of computing devices have been implemented using this media; image processors and memory devices [15,16,17], logical gates implemented in geometrically constrained BZ media [18, 19], approximation of the shortest path of excitation waves [20,21,22], information coding using the frequency of oscillations [23], onboard controllers for robots [24,25,26], chemical diodes [27], neuromorphic architectures [28,29,30,31,32,33,34] and associated memory [35, 36], wave-based counters [37] and other information processors [32, 38,39,40]
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