Bubble-free System for Belousov-Zhabotinsky Gels

The chemical energy from the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction powers autonomous mechanical oscillations in BZ gels. One drawback is that the process produces carbon dioxide bubbles, making lengthy experiments and practical applications difficult. Herein we synthesize a microphase-separated BZ gel and determine mechanical oscillation conditions that do not generate bubbles. Investigations of the thermodynamic mechanism of the CHD-BZ gel using 1,4-cyclohexanedione (CHD) reveals that the Flory interaction parameter » is altered by the redox changes to the metal ion incorporated in a microphaseseparated CHD-BZ gel. This microphase-separated structure leads to alterations in » as well as the entropy when redox changes occur in a microphase-separated CHD-BZ gel.