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The Rate and Extent of Chemical Change

Catalysts

  • 3 things to know
  • Chemistry Paper 2

Overview

What a catalyst is and why little is needed, why different reactions need different catalysts, enzymes as biological catalysts, how a catalyst provides a pathway with lower activation energy without changing the amount of product or the energy change, its effect on a reaction profile, identifying one, and industrial uses.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Define a catalyst.

Key term

Explain why only a small amount of a catalyst is needed even for a reaction that is run many times.

Key term

Describe how the reaction profile of a catalysed reaction differs from that of the same reaction without a catalyst.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    Define a catalyst.

    Model answer

    A catalyst is a substance that changes the rate of a chemical reaction without being used up in the reaction.

  2. 2

    Explain why only a small amount of a catalyst is needed even for a reaction that is run many times.

    Model answer

    The catalyst is not used up during the reaction, so the same catalyst can be used over and over again.

  3. 3

    State whether one catalyst will speed up any chemical reaction.

    Model answer

    No, different reactions need different catalysts.

  4. 4

    Name the substances that act as catalysts in living organisms.

    Model answer

    Enzymes.

  5. 5

    Explain why enzymes are described as catalysts.

    Model answer

    They speed up reactions in biological systems and are not used up by those reactions.

  6. 6

    Explain how a catalyst increases the rate of a chemical reaction.

    Model answer

    It provides a different pathway for the reaction that has a lower activation energy.

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