ENVIRONMENTAL CHEMISTRY - COMPLEX-REACTION PATTERNS OF SOME SELECTED SULFUR-COMPOUNDS IN AQUEOUS-SOLUTIONS AND GASEOUS-MIXTURES

There is an inherent problem of control in environmental sulfur abatem ent procedures. This can be attributed to the scant knowledge availabl e on sulfur reactions and mechanisms. Reactions of sulfur are difficul t to control because of the wide range of non-linear behaviour and exo tic dynamics that are viable when a sulfur compound is a reactant. Sul fur compound oxidations are also difficult to study because of poor re producibility of experimental results. Irreproducibility can be traced partly to free-radical mechanisms land extensive sulfur polymerizatio ns in most reaction mixtures. The most important factor in irreproduci bility of sulfur reactions, however, is the propensity of sulfur compo unds to give non-linear kinetics. The observed non-linear kinetics hav e led to chemical instabilities and spatial inhomogeneities. Control o f reactions which subscribe to non-linear dynamics is much more diffic ult to effect as the reaction responds non-linearly to external bifurc ation parameters.