Debriefing

The Briggs-Rauscher reaction is a very appealing reaction to me, which is why I chose to try it for my ISU. It is a relatively easy reaction to prepare and it is not very hard to carry out; yet it is interesting to observe and learn about. Although it would seem that the reaction is relatively simple, it is actually a very rare type of reaction and has a very complex reaction mechanism. The three solutions I needed to prepare were very easy to mix properly. The reaction took place without any complication, and changed from dark blue to clear and back for more than a few minutes before starting to fade and increase in time in between changes. In future attempts at this reaction I will consider adding more starch indicator to give a deeper blue colour. To obtain weaker colour changes, but more oscillations I could dilute the prepared solutions further; to obtain deeper colour changes, I could prepare more concentrated solutions at the cost of fewer oscillations. Also, the replacement of starch indicator with a fluorescent dye would cause the colour changes to be visible in darkness while under UV lights which would be very cool to see.