While various reactions in the inorganic subset of the oscillatory Briggs-Rauscher
(BR) reaction were clarified in the recent years, the organic subset of the present
mechanisms contains only one process: the iodination of malonic acid. Further organic
reactions can play a role, however, if malonic (MA) and iodomalonic (IMA) acids can
be oxidized in the BR reaction. As CO2 and CO should be products if such oxidations
can take place, the main aim of this work was to learn whether these gases are produced
in a significant amount in a BR system. In our BR experiments, a rather intense evolution
of both gases was observed with an oscillatory and a nonoscillatory component. With
the initial conditions applied here, one from every 6 carbon atoms was oxidized either
to CO2 or to CO in the course of the BR reaction. The amount of CO2 was about 4 times
higher than that of CO. Experiments are in progress to disclose the reactions which
generate the measured gases and their role in the mechanism of the BR reaction.
