Different influences of adrenaline on the Bray–Liebhafsky and Briggs–Rauscher iodate based oscillating reactions

The influence of adrenaline on two iodate based oscillating chemical reactions, the Bray–Liebhafsky (BL) and Briggs–Rauscher (BR) reactions was investigated. It was observed that the addition of adrenaline has different effects on the examined systems. Its addition to the BR system significantly changes the dynamics, while in the BL system, the presence of adrenaline does not show any effect. In order to find out the cause of such a different response of two similar oscillators, UV/VIS spectroscopy was used. Results obtained from recorded UV/VIS spectra indicated that, from all investigated stable reaction species, adrenaline interacts only with potassium iodate and iodine, which are present in both oscillating reactions. Because of this, the different response of the oscillators cannot be ascribed to the reactions between adrenaline and common iodine (stable and unstable) components. As a result, the considerable response of the BR system to adrenaline may be related to the reactions between adrenaline (or its oxidation products) and non-common derivatives of malonic acid or manganese intermediate species.