Low-dimensional spatio-temporal thermal dynamics on nonuniform catalytic surfaces

Nonuniform catalytic activity on a supported catalyst for exothermic oxidation reaction is shown to induce low-dimensional, coherent-structure-dominated pattern dynamics. By analyzing the IR thermographic video images of thermal patterns during CO oxidation at a Rh black/SiO 2 wafer and by projecting the spatiotemporal dynamics of the thermal pattern onto a low-dimensional (n<3) reconstructed phase space using a Karhunen - Loeve procedure, we are able to relate the observed pattern dynamics to attractors of dynamical systems theory