Description
In physics, oscillations, e.g. of springs, are adiabatic processes. They conserve both energy and entropy. This can be monitored by observing the oscillating temperature. Oscillations also exist in chemistry. Such oscillations are described in the literature by reaction-diffusion networks of coupled rate equations that only contain chemical concentrations as variables. Therefore, these oscillations are treated differently to the oscillations of springs. Temperature and other variables are not considered, which also makes it impossible to judge whether such reactions contain entropy-conserving elements. However, there are indications that chemical oscillatio ns also display periodic variations in temperature. In this thesis, temperature and concentration variations in a few chemical oscillations, such as the Belousov–Zhabotinsky reaction and the Briggs–Rauscher reaction, will be studied. They will be compared to physical oscillators, such as springs and capacitors. The thesis has experimental and theoretical elements.
| Field of study | Biophysics |
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| Supervisor | thomas heimburg |