Catalysts

What is a catalyst?

• A catalyst increases the rate of reaction by providing an alternative reaction pathway with a lower activation energy without being used up.

• Many catalysts would usually only work on a single reaction.

How do catalysts work?

The catalyst lowers the activation energy, meaning there are more particles with enough energy to react when they collide.

What does the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution look like when a catalyst is added?

• With a catalyst present, the molecules still have the same amount of energy, so the curve itself is unchanged.

• But because the activation energy is now lower, more molecules have energies above this threshold and are able to react

hello

hello