Catalysts
Summary: Substances that speed up chemical reactions without being consumed. Tags: concepts chemistry Created: 2026-04-23T01:00:00Z Last Updated: 2026-04-23T01:00:00Z
Content
A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction by providing an alternative reaction pathway with lower activation energy. Catalysts are not used up in the reaction and can be recovered unchanged at the end.
They allow reactions to occur faster or at lower temperatures, which is useful in industry and biological systems (enzymes are biological catalysts).
Examples: Platinum in catalytic converters, enzymes in digestion.