DELAY-INDUCED CHAOS IN CATALYTIC SURFACE-REACTIONS

Deterministic chaos related to a sequence of period-doubling bifurcati ons (the Feigenbaum transition) has been observed in the NO + CO and N O + H-2 reactions on Pt(100). On a microscopic scale, these reactions are accompanied by the formation of 1x1 adsorbate islands due to the p roperties of the 1X1 <-> hex phase transition of Pt(100), A simple ske leton model is constructed that describes the behavior of a population of reacting islands which are globally coupled together via the gas p hase, Investigations of this model show that the experimentally observ ed chaotic behavior can result from delays in the response of the reac ting islands to partial pressure variations in the gas phase. (C) 1997 American Institute of Physics.