A response that puzzled scientists for 50 years has now been explained by researchers at Umeå University. Rapid structural snapshots captured how graphite transforms into graphite oxide during electrochemical oxidation, revealing intermediate structures that appear and disappear over time. The researchers describe this as a brand new form of oscillating response.
Oscillating chemical reactions are fascinating to observe and vital for developing an understanding of how complex systems work, each in chemistry and in nature. Classical visual examples of such reactions show how the colours of an answer change backwards and forwards, cycling through different states and producing a final product after each cycle.
Umeå researchers recently published a study within the scientific journal Angewandte Chemie, reporting a reasonably different and latest form of oscillating response during electrochemical oxidation of graphite.
“It has been known for 50 years that some voltage oscillations spontaneously occur when a charge is applied to a graphite electrode immersed in sulphuric acid solution. The tip product of this response is graphite oxide, a cloth consisting of layers of graphene oxide. Nevertheless, what happens to the structure of the fabric in the course of the response at every oscillation cycle had remained an entire mystery,” says Alexandr Talyzin, Professor within the Department of Physics at Umeå University.
Due to latest synchrotron methods, researchers can record X-ray diffraction scans in a matter of a couple of seconds, providing snapshots of the fabric’s structure changes during oxidation. Surprisingly, the experiments revealed an intermediate phase with a selected structure that appears at one a part of the cycle, disappears in the following stage after which reappears, repeating the cycle.
“Soon we realised that we had observed a brand new — to the most effective of our knowledge — form of oscillating response. What began as an in depth study of a specific chemical response suddenly seemed to be rather a lot more interesting from the perspective of fundamental chemistry. Bartosz Gurzeda, the primary writer of the study, also recorded a gorgeous video showing periodic changes in the looks of a sample every couple of minutes,” says Alexandr Talyzin.
Oscillation reactions are happening inside all living beings but were once considered inconceivable in inorganic chemistry. This discovery expands our knowledge of chemical kinetics and response mechanisms and may lead to the event of latest theories and models in chemistry.
The primary theory explaining oscillating reactions earned Ilya Prigogine the Nobel Prize in 1977 and have become a fundamental a part of non-equilibrium thermodynamics, showing how order can emerge from chaos.
“We hope that latest theories might be developed to clarify this latest form of oscillating response, which can result in the invention of latest similar examples,” says Alexandr Talyzin.
