SOME PROPERTIES OF THE A+B-]C REACTION-DIFFUSION SYSTEM WITH INITIALLY SEPARATED COMPONENTS

We study some properties of the A + B --> C reaction-diffusion system with initially separated components, first analyzed by means of an asymptotic scaling argument by Galfi and Racz. We show that, in contrast to the asymptotic result that predicts that the rate of production of C goes like t-1 2, at early times it is shown to increase as t1 2. Deviations from this behavior appear at times inversely proportional to the reaction constant. Analogous crossover properties appear in the kinetic behavior of the reaction front. A second part of the study is concerned with the same chemical reaction on a fractal surface. When the substrate is a percolation cluster at criticality, both the maximum production rate and the width of the reaction zone differ considerably from those for the homogeneous space.