Periodic Heat Evolution during Temporal Chemical Oscillations

PERIODIC temperature changes in Belousov-Zhabotinsky type oscillating chemical reactions have been reported; according to Franck and Geiseler1 the temperature fluctuation in one cycle may be as great as 1° C. Busse2 observed a temperature oscillation of about 0.04° C around a nearly constant value and concluded that there was almost no overall heat production in the reaction. He presumed that the chemical energy within one cycle was converted to mechanical energy associated with the formation of carbon dioxide.