• Question: What are catalysts?

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      • Royal Society of Chemistry: Find out more about:
      Asked by WILL.(iWHAT2 to Alan, Sankar on 6 Mar 2015. This question was also asked by LAD123.
      • Photo: Alan McCue

        Alan McCue answered on 6 Mar 2015:

        Ok so a catalysts is a chemical that allows you to make other chemicals in a simple, safer and greener way. The key to a catalyst is that it does not get used up so you can use it make loads and loads of chemicals. In terms of being green, a good catalyst allows you to make chemicals at low temperature (use less energy), low pressure (safer) and produce less waste.

        Great examples include the catalytic convertor at the back of your car. It serves many purposes. Firstly it takes carbon monoxide (toxic) and coverts it into carbon dioxide (not toxic). It also does many other things (coverts nitrous oxide into nitrogen and unburnt fuel into carbon dioxide and water). The net result is it converts your exhaust gases from harmful chemical into less harmful ones.

        All in all catalysts are exceptionally important and I would go so far as saying everything you can buy from a shop has been made using a catalyst at some point!

      • Photo: Sankar Meenakshisundaram

        Sankar Meenakshisundaram answered on 6 Mar 2015:

        The technical definition of a catalyst is “a substance that speeds up any chemical reaction”. To understand this let me give you an analogy.
        Assume a hungry toddler doesn’t want to eat. The process of feeding him/her a meal would probably take 1 or 1.5 h, he/she will run around would not open his/her mouth, throw the stuff etc. the parent has to spend enormous amount of energy to feed him 1 meal. This is a “non-catalytic” process.
        Assume that he likes watching poems/rhymes in an iPad. Now you play a rhyme in an iPad and start feeding the toddler. Now the kid eats the food watching the rhyme in 25 mins sitting in a chair. The parent has to spend less energy to finish giving the meal. This is a “catalytic process” and the iPad/poem/rhyme is the “catalyst”.

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