Oscillatory photochemical decomposition of tetrathionate ion.

When subject to illumination, tetrathionate ion decomposes in an oscillatory fashion with a period of about 1 h to yield products identified as colloidal sulfur and trithionate ion. This system represents the first experimental example of a stirred, batch photochemical oscillator. A simple model consisting of four reaction steps and four adjustable rate parameters gives good agreement with the observed oscillatory behavior.