Pattern formation in a tunable medium: the Belousov-Zhabotinsky reaction in an aerosol OT microemulsion.

Turing structures, standing waves, oscillatory clusters, and accelerating waves have been found in the spatially extended Belousov-Zhabotinsky system dispersed in water droplets of a reverse AOT microemulsion. The variety of patterns is determined by the tunable microstructure of the medium, i.e., by the concentration and size of water droplets. We propose a simple model to describe this system.