EXPERIMENTAL DEMONSTRATION OF DELAY AND MEMORY EFFECTS IN THE BIFURCATIONS OF NICKEL ELECTRODISSOLUTION

It is shown experimentally that the rate of change upsilon of the appl ied potential affects the delay associated with the Hopf and saddle-no de bifurcations in the anodic nickel dissolution in aqueous sulfuric a cid solutions. The magnitude of the delay is proportional to upsilon(p ) where p approximate to 1 for the Hopf and p approximate to 2/3 for t he saddle-node bifurcation. A memory effect, i.e., the onset of oscill ation exhibiting dependence on the starting potential, is observed dur ing a fast scan through the Hopf bifurcation point.