Abstract
Traveling waves of brown FeN02+ may be observed in an initially homogeneous mixture of nitric acid and iron(ll). The waves are obtained by First scavenging HN02 from the mixture with hydrazine or azide and then initiating at a given point with a drop of nitrite solution or electrochemically. Both one- and two-dimensional waves have been generated and their velocities studied as functions of initial reactant concentrations. The one-dimensional waves travel several times more rapidly going down a narrow tube than going up. This remarkable, but apparently general, behavior is attributed to the effects of convection induced by the exothermicity of the reaction.