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A generally applicable mechanism of autonomous splitting and reversal of excitable concentration waves in a dc electric field is proposed on the basis of numerical modeling of experiments in a spatially quasi-onedimensional Belousov-Zhabotinskii reaction medium. Different numbers of waves can split off of the back of the original wave depending on the applied field intensity. The original wave can either persist or cease to exist in the course of the wave splitting.

The propagation of arsenous acid−iodate reaction fronts of different net stoichiometries in externally applied dc electric fields is studied for a range of both electric field intensities and initial compositions of the reacting mixture (represented by the stoichiometric factor S 0). Regions of three different types of net stoichiometry in the parametric space ℰ/V vs S 0, where ℰ is the intensity of the applied electric field and V the reaction front propagation velocity, are determined both experimentally and by analyzing a reaction−diffusion−migration model that includes a realistic kinetic scheme of the reaction studied. Both agreement with and discrepancies between the theoretical predictions and experimental findings are discussed.

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