SPATIALLY-RESOLVED ANOMALOUS KINETICS OF A CATALYTIC REACTION - ENZYMATIC GLUCOSE-OXIDATION IN CAPILLARY SPACES

A reaction involving the catalytic oxidation of glucose by the enzyme glucose oxidase is employed as a first spatially resolved experimental realization of a nonclassical A + C --> + Products chemical reaction. This heterogeneous kinetics experiment models the operation of optica l glucose sensors. One-dimensional nonclassical reaction kinetics, man ifested in anomalous rate laws, are observed. The time evolution of th e density gradient of Oz in the zone near the catalytic trap was monit ored. The temporal dependence of the growth of this depletion zone M, predicted to scale as t(1/2), was measured to be M similar to t(0.50+/ -0.05). This time dependence of the growth in M is directly proportion al to the anomalous, time-dependent, reaction rate coefficient.