In this experiment, students witness a clear example of an oscillating reaction, as bromate ions oxidise malonic acid to carbon dioxide in the presence of manganese(II) ions as a catalyst. The reaction mixture oscillates in colour between red-brown and colourless, with a period of about 20 seconds.
Oscillating reactions can be both dramatic and are worth including at an open day to stimulate an interest in chemistry. This particular demonstration is fairly straightforward to set up, works reliably, and is based on the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction.
You are watching: A simple oscillating reaction
The demonstration itself takes about ten minutes, but needs rather more time to set up.
A white background helps to make the colour changes more vivid.
A member of the audience with a stopwatch could be asked to time the oscillation. The time period of 20 seconds mentioned above refers to an ambient temperature of about 20 °C. If the temperature is higher than this then the time period drops accordingly.
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The reaction will NOT work if tap water is used instead of deionised water. Chloride ions, via the addition of a pinch of potassium chloride or dilute hydrochloric acid, will immediately stop the oscillations. The use of clean apparatus is therefore essential.
The reaction mixture can be washed down the sink with plenty of tap water after the demonstration.
The theory of oscillating reactions is complex and not fully understood. However, this particular process is an example of a class of processes known as Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reactions. The overall reaction is usually given as:
3CH2(COOH)2(aq) + 4BrO3-(aq) → 4Br-(aq) + 9CO2(g) + 6H2O(l)
The oxidation of the malonic acid by the bromate(V) ions is catalysed by manganese(II) ions, and manganese(III) ions are produced as intermediates.
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Some references claim that the red colour is due to molecular bromine which could be produced via the following two steps:
Br-(aq) + BrO3-(aq) + 2H+(aq) → HBrO2 + HBrO(aq)
Br-(aq) + HBrO(aq) + H+(aq) → Br2(aq) + H2O(l)
However, other detailed studies of the processes occurring give a variety of colourless bromate ions and bromic acid molecules as intermediates, rather than bromine itself, so it is therefore possible that the red colour is due to something else, maybe the transient existence of Mn3+ ions which are known to be red/purple in colour.
The colour oscillation is brought about by two autocatalytic steps, which are highly complex in nature and have been the cause of several advanced research projects over the past 30 years or so. Some web references are given below.
For the needs of the likely target audience, an analogy with predator-prey relationships might be one way to give students some idea of what is going on. For example, a population of rabbits (analogous to the red manganese(III) ions) will increase rapidly (exponentially) if there is plenty of food (reactants). However, the plentiful supply of rabbits will stimulate a rapid increase in the fox population (another intermediate that reacts with the manganese(III) ions) which will then deplete the rabbits. Lacking rabbits, the foxes will die, bringing us back to square one, ready for a rapid increase in rabbits and so on.
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This post was last modified on 11/10/2023 08:41
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