From Master–Slave to Peer-to-Peer Coupling in Chemical Reaction Networks

Design strategy through linking a driving pH oscillator (master system) to a pH sensitive complexation, precipitation, or protonation equilibrium (slave system) has been widely used to create and control concentration oscillations of chemical entities (e.g., monovalent cations, DNA, nanoparticles) not participating in the pH oscillatory system. No systematic investigation has been carried out on how the components of these equilibria affect the characteristics of the driving pH oscillators, and this feedback effect has been often neglected in previous studies. Here we show that pH sensitive species (hydrogen carbonate, EDTA) through a pH-dependent equilibrium could significantly affect the characteristics (time period and amplitude) of the driving pH oscillators. By varying the concentration of those species we are able to control the strength of the chemical feedback from slave system to master system thus introducing a transition from master–slave coupling to peer-to-peer coupling in linked chemical systems. To illustrate this transition and coupling strategies we investigate two coupled chemical systems, namely, the bromate–sulfite pH oscillator and carbonate–carbon dioxide equilibrium and the hydrogen peroxide–thiosulfate–copper­(II) and EDTA complexation equilibrium. As a sign of the peer-to-peer coupling the characteristics of the driving oscillatory systems can be tuned by controlling the feedback strength, and the oscillations can be canceled above a critical value of this parameter.