Modeling spatiotemporal behavior of the NO+CO reaction on Pt

Various features of NO+CO reaction kinetics on Pt(100) surfaces, including temporal oscillations, are well described by a three-variable model incorporating only the CO, NO, and O coverages. Here we analyze the corresponding reaction–diffusion equations demonstrating the existence of chemical waves where an ‘‘oscillating phase’’ displaces an unreactive NO/CO phase leaving a spatially periodic structure in its wake; pulses excited via inhomogeneities from an unreactive NO/CO background; and Turing structures for sufficiently unequal NO and CO diffusion rates.