Question #009ad
1 Answer
- Caltalyst are subtances that speed up the rate of reaction without being depleted.
- Some examples of catalyst are:
-
Vanadium(V)Oxide which is involved in Contact Process to speed up the rate of oxidation of sulfur dioxide
#(SO_2)# into sulfur trioxide#(SO_3)# -
Salivary amylase is an enzyme biological catalyst which works the same way as normal catalysts and not only speeds the rate of reaction but also digest substances (and for instance starch in the mouth where pH is suitable for its action (6.9 approx)
Now how catalysts actually work,
Catalyst work by lowering the activation energy (which is the energy needed for reactions to be sucessful) when particles in the reagents collide together. This new activation energy is gained by much more particles than the original one. Therefore, succesful collisions of particles will occur more frequently therefore speeding up the rate of reaction.
For more info, try this video. Cheers ;)
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