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How a catalyst works.
Member rating: No Rating | Words: | Submitted: Fri Oct 24 2003
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How a catalyst works There are many ways in which we are able to speed up the rate of reactions. A catalyst can either increase or decrease the rate of reaction. A positive catalyst lowers activation energy. The particles, therefore, need less energy to react and the process proceeds more quickly. A negative catalyst (an inhibitor) slows down the rate of a chemical reaction by doing the exact opposite. However, it is important to realise that the catalyst itself does not take place in the reaction and it is, therefore, not used up in the reaction. Below is an energy diagram showing the presence of a catalyst. The graph shows the effect of a positive catalyst on the activation energy. When you use a catalyst, there is as much catalyst at the end of the reaction as there was at the beginning. The catalyst is used over and over again. As catalysts...
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