ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Morphological orders of spherulitic crystal textures in Belousov–Zhabotinsky-type oscillatory reaction system

Narendra Yadav, Syam Sundar Majhi, Sudhir Kumar Saw, and Prem Kumar Srivastava

Department of Space Engineering & Rocketry, Birla Institute of Technology, 835215 Mesra, Jharkhand, India

E-mail: yadav_chemistry@rediffmail.com

Abstract: The morphological orders of spherulitic crystal patterns in a Belousov-Zhabotinsky-type oscillatory reaction system were studied. The experiments showed that the morphology of crystal patterns were highly dependent on the reaction temperature. The reaction was initially carried out at 30°C, leading to the growth of multi-centred spherulitic patterns. The single-centred spherulitic patterns with fairly large crystal fibrils were obtained at 35°C. A number of undersized crystal assemblies with fractal geometry were also investigated at 25°C. The gross morphology of the crystal patterns was examined using optical microscopy and a scanning electron microscope which revealed the fibrous organisations. A particle-mediated self-assembly scheme was proposed for the growth of the spherulitic patterns. The insight into the nucleation mechanism, growth behaviour, and morphological orders of the growing patterns is discussed in detail. The crystal phases, ordering of textures, and composition of the crystals were characterised by thermal and X-ray diffraction techniques

Keywords: Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction – nucleation – dendrites – spherulites – fractals

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1515/chempap-2015-0059

Chemical Papers 69 (4) 604–615 (2015)