Date of Award

2016

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Yildirim, Necmettin

Area of Concentration

Chemistry

Abstract

The mechanism of the Briggs-Rauscher oscillating reaction includes a complex set of redox reactions involving peroxy radicals and iodine and manganese in various oxidation states. The Briggs-Rauscher reaction exhibits a number of color changes from orange to blue and back again before eventually reaching equilibrium. In this work, we analyzed the effects of temperature, pH, reactant concentration, and reaction vessel surface area on the oscillation amplitude and period, collecting data with a commercial webcam and analyzing it via the ImageJ software package. Concurrently, we modeled the kinetics of this reaction in MatLab and were able to observe realistic behavior in both the concentrations of intermediates and in oscillation characteristics. The effects of reactant concentration and pH were compared to the simulated model.

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