NONLINEAR DYNAMICS AND THERMODYNAMICS OF CHEMICAL REACTIONS FAR FROM EQUILIBRIUM

In a macroscopic, homogeneous reacting system, the rates of change of chemical species concentrations are governed by a set of coupled, nonlinear ordinary differential equations according to the law of mass action. Far from equilibrium, reactions in batch or in flow reactors exhibit the com­ plexity and phenomenological diversity typical of nonlinear dynamical systems: multiple steady states, relaxation oscillations, near-sinusoidal oscillations, complex oscillations with large and small amplitude peaks, bursts of high-frequency oscillations, birhythmicity, quasiperiodicity, and chaos have all been found in the study of chemical reaction networks ( 1-8). When a system is displaced from equilibrium by fluxes of matter or energy across its boundaries, multiple steady states may appear, if the reaction network exhibits autocatalysis, substrate inhibition of enzyme