SUSTAINED OSCILLATIONS AND BISTABILITY IN A DETAILED MECHANISM OF THE PEROXIDASE OXIDASE REACTION

A detailed mechanism for the aerobic oxidation of NADFI catalyzed by horseradish peroxidase, called the peroxidase-oxidase reaction, is studied by computer simulation and found to show bistability, damped and sustained oscillations. These oscillations are smooth and almost sinusoidal. The mechanism also predicts that a stable oscillatory state and a stable steady state can coexist for the same set of parameters. Decreasing the oxygen concentration in the gas phase for a short period of time is found to perturb the stable steady state toward the oscillatory state, while a spike of hydrogen peroxide drives an oscillatory state to a stable steady state. The mechanism is compared with detailed mechanisms proposed by other investigators as well as two 4-species abstract models we have studied previously. © 1990, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.