title: An elegant method to study an isolated spiral wave in a thin layer of a batch Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction under oxygen-free conditions.
abstract: A method to prepare a uniform thin layer of a batch Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction under oxygen-free conditions for the study of an isolated spiral wave is presented. After a first layer of gel soaked with the BZ solution has been delivered into the reactor, a single spiral wave was initiated, and finally the remaining reactor volume was filled with gel and BZ medium. The completely filled reactor is sealed gas-tightly, yielding oxygen-free, and thus more controlled, reaction conditions. A systematic study of the behaviour of an isolated spiral wave in a ferroin-catalyzed BZ reaction under batch conditions has been performed. Recipes for BZ media that support a slowly rotating meandering spiral were developed. In cases of extremely low excitability (i.e., relative large stimuli are required to induce a propagating wave), the number of petals in the trajectory of a spiral tip decreased due to aging of the reaction system. Since oxygen-free conditions are necessary for the study of the dynamics in three-dimensional excitable media, and the wave velocities of a spiral are sufficiently low, the developed chemical recipes are suitable for studies of the behaviour of scroll waves in three-dimensional systems by optical tomography.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Experimental Physics, Biophysics Group, Otto-von-Guericke-Universität Magdeburg, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106, Magdeburg, Germany. chaiya.luengviriya@physik.uni-magdeburg.de
authors.forename: Chaiya
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Luengviriya
authors.forename: Ulrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Storb
authors.forename: Marcus J B
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Hauser
authors.forename: Stefan C
authors.initials: SC
authors.lastname: Müller
mesh_terms: D000693:Anaerobiosis; D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D044085:Microfluidics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010100:Oxygen
chemical_list: D010100:Oxygen