Experimental study of a closed system in the sodium chlorite–iodine–ethyl acetoacetate oscillation reaction by UV–Vis and online FTIR spectrophotometric method

The sodium chlorite–iodine–ethyl acetoacetate (EAA) chemical oscillatory reaction system was studied by UV–Vis and online FTIR spectrophotometric method. The oscillation phenomenon does not occur as long as the reactants are mixed. There is a pre-oscillatory or induction period. The amplitude is small at the beginning stage and then increases with reaction time. Finally, the oscillation ceases suddenly. The amplitude and the number of oscillations are associated with the initial concentration of sodium chlorite, iodine, EAA and sulfuric acid. The equations for the triiodide ion reaction rate changing with reaction time and the initial concentrations on the oscillation stage were obtained. The intermediates were detected by the online FTIR analysis. Based upon the experimental data in this work and in the literature, a plausible reaction mechanism was proposed for the oscillation reaction.