Turing Patterns, Spatial Bistability, and Front Instabilities in a Reaction−Diffusion System

The chlorine dioxide−iodine−malonic acid oscillating reaction produces Turing patterns when operated in open spatial reactors. In the same operating conditions, the chlorine dioxide−iodide bistable reaction leads to spatial bistability between two steady states that do not break the symmetry of boundary conditions. We develop a system combining these two properties. Phase diagram studies show that the Turing pattern region cannot be generically made to interact with the phenomenon of spatial bistability. In the spatial bistability region, stationary pulses and complex transient domain patterns are observed, a new phenomenon for the chlorite−iodide driven systems. These have no connection with the previously observed Turing patterns. We propose a systematic design method to produce permanent domain patterns in systems exhibiting spatial bistability.