Electrically coupled chemical oscillators and their action potentials

Electrical coupling of chemical oscillators is shown to be a versatile and rapid method to study the propagation of action potentials (spikes, oscilla tions) using three, four, and six electrically coupled continuous flow stir red tank reactors (CSTR). Starting with a prepared excitable steady state c lose to a SNIPER bifurcation in the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction, con ditions are specified for the initiation and propagation of these action po tentials in a linear array of reactors and in a cyclic array. In the cyclic array, traveling waves of action potentials were measured for the first ti me. The coherence and incoherence of two, three, and four chemical BZ oscil lators which were mutually electrically coupled was also studied. Numerical simulations with the seven-variables Montanator are in fair agreement with the experimental results.