Controlling Electrochemical Chaos in the Copper-Phosphoric Acid System

Model calculations indicate that chaotic current oscillations during anodic electrodissolution of copper into phosphoric acid may be controlled by applying a simple map-based algorithm. In the experiments, the unstable period-one and period-two orbits embedded in the chaotic attractor have been stabilized by small perturbations of the anodic potential. We present the results of an experimental test for a power law relating the average chaotic transient time to the size of maximum perturbation allowed during control. The reported experimental results are in good agreement with the theoretical predictions by Ott, Grebogi, and Yorke.