Design of graphene-based catalysts for Belousov Zhabotinsky reaction

Use of hybrid materials containing structures at different length scales has gained significant traction because of their ability to provide multifunctional characteristics to soft materials. Here, we focus on the Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) reaction, which represents a nonlinear chemical oscillator, and show that its dynamics can be tuned by using hybrid 2D materials, i.e., graphene-based nanosheets decorated with different nanoparticles (NPs). Specifically, we demonstrate that through the careful choice of NP decorations in designing our catalytic mats, frequency of chemical oscillations in the BZ reaction system can be increased four times. Further, we reveal that this observed behavior is attributed to enhanced access to active catalytic sites on NPs, as well as the rapid shuttling of electrons facilitated by the highly conductive graphene platform. We also perform modelling and simulation studies and our results reveal a strong correlation between the rate of charge transfer and the frequency of chemical oscillations. In essence, we showcase the ability of a 2D material, like graphene, to influence the dynamics of an oscillatory chemical reactions and anticipate that our approach will open up new avenues to tune the dynamics of chemical oscillators.