title: Light-Modulated Intermittent Wave Groups in a Diffusively Fed Reactive Gel.
abstract: Inspired by the biological growth that takes place in time-varying external fields such as light or temperature, we design an open reaction-diffusion system in order to investigate growth dynamics. The system is composed of the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) oscillatory reaction coupled with a copolymer gel consisting of NIPAAm and a photosensitive ruthenium catalyst. When subject to a unidirectional flow of the BZ reactants, the system displays groups of chemical waves whose structure depends upon the period and amplitude of illumination. Simulations of a modified six-variable Oregonator model exhibit all the complex wave groups found in our experiments. Studying this growth structure may aid in understanding the influence of periodic environmental variation on complex growth processes in living systems.
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, P.R. China.|College of Chemical Engineering and Material Science, Zaozhuang University, Zaozhuang, 277160, Shandong, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Hainan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Chenlong
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Lin
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, P.R. China. gaoqy@cumt.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Qingyu
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: College of Chemical Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, Jiangsu, P.R. China.
authors.forename: Changwei
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry and Volen Center for Complex Systems, MS 015, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, 02454-9110, USA. epstein@brandeis.edu.
authors.forename: Irving R
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3180-4055
authors.initials: IR
authors.lastname: Epstein
keywords: diffusion-fed gel; periodic perturbation; photosensitive oscillations; wave groups