Collect. Czech. Chem. Commun. 2009, 74, 1559-1570
https://doi.org/10.1135/cccc2009120
Published online 2009-12-09 21:37:39

Irregular polarographic currents obey Feigenbaum universality route from order to chaos

Lubomír Pospíšila,b,*, Magdaléna Hromadováb,*, Miroslav Gálb, Michal Valášeka, Nicolangelo Fanellic and Viliam Kolivoškab

a Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Flemingovo nám. 2, 166 10 Prague 6, Czech Republic
b J. Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i., Dolejškova 3, 182 23 Prague 8, Czech Republic
c Istituto per i Processi Chimico Fisici, CNR, via Moruzzi 1, 56100 Pisa, Italy

Abstract

The DC polarograms of an oligomer with four repetitive units of ‘extended viologen’ yield in part irregular current fluctuation. The analysis of the current–time transients at different potentials confirms the periodicity, the period doubling and transfer to chaos. The periodicity doubling obeys the universal route to chaos. The estimated value of the Feigenbaum constant 4.68 is very close to the theoretical value δ = 4.6692...

Keywords: Extended viologen; Pyridinium salts; Electroreduction; Feingenbaum constant; Polarography; Electrochemistry.

References: 47 live references.