Simulation of the minimal BrO₃^- continuous-flow stirred tank reactor oscillator on the basis of a revised set of rate constants

The Noyes-Field-Thompson (NFT) mechanism of the oxidation of Ce(III) by BrO₃^- in ≈1 M H₂SO₄ is an important part of the Field-Körös-Noyes (FKN) mechanism of the oscillatory Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction. The details of the oxidation of Ce(III) by BrO₃^- and the NFT mechanism can be studied in isolation by using its complex behavior in a continuous-flow stirred tank reactor (CSTR). Both bistability and oscillations are observed in this system, which in a CSTR is referred to as the minimal BrO₃^- oscillator. A number of parametrizations have been suggested for the NFT mechanism, but it has been very difficult to decide which one is most accurate as all maintain the rate constant ratios which principally determine the mechanism's behavior. We show here that a set of NFT rate constants due to Tyson and to Field and Försterling that have a great deal of independent support also quite adequately reproduce the behavior of the minimal BrO₃^- oscillator when combined with a recently determined value of the equilibrium constant for the hydrolysis of Br₂. We conclude that this set of rate constants is the preferred parametrization of the NFT mechanism.