Whenever I search about this, it always just say they reduce activation energy and provide alternate reaction path but what is it actually doing to achieve this ?
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A catalyst is a chemical that helps to speed up a chemical reaction without being used up itself in the reaction. In other words, a catalyst provides an alternative pathway with a lower activation energy for the reaction to occur.
The catalyst provides an alternate pathway of reaction. So instead of A + B -> AB which might have a high activation energy you might have A + C -> AC and then AC + B -> AB + C which might have much lower activation energies. And even though the catalyst (C) is technically part of the reaction and is bonded in the intermediary steps the end result have the same catalyst as output as were given as input. So there is no net loss in catalytic material.
To get from reactants to products in a reaction the reaction goes through one or moe intermediates. An intermediate is a highly unstable form that requires alot of energy to maintain. ELI5 If a glass falls on the floor and breaks its reactants the glass will be transformed to products broken glass everywhere. But in a very brief instant all the fragments will be in the shape of a glass. This state is called an intermediate.
An intermediate because it is so unfavourable requires alot of energy to achieve. ELI5 its difficult to assemble all the glass fragments into the shape of the glass or to break the glass so carefully that it maintains its shape.
A catalyst lowers the energy of the intermediate by stabalizing it. ELI5 it wraps the glass in tape before smashing it making it easier for it to maintain its shape. This lowers the energy of the intermediate, which means the reaction needs less energy to go from reactants to products. This allows the reaction to go faster.
a fisherman and his son are sitting by a river all happy watching their fish traps .. they are creatures of the river, swim well, have no fear of the river
a mother and her child approach the river which they have to cross to get to the market .. they are scared of the river, can’t swim very well, and are arguing by the river bank trying to hype themselves up for the scary crossing
the fisherman sees them and says hey dont worry, I’m not going where you are going but I’ll take you one at a time .. but the mother says oh no, I can’t leave my child alone and go with you, nor can I let you just take my child across and leave her in the other bank alone while you come get me
so the fisherman says, hold on, I’ll take my son across the river first, then I’ll come get your child and she can stay with him, then I’ll come get you across, and finally I’ll bring my son back here, problem solved!
the fisherman and his son provided an alternate safer pathway/mechanism for the mother and child to cross the scary river without having to ever leave the child alone by providing intermediate pairings that were safer and easier to cross the river with, while still leaving themselves the same way as they were before, and therefore potentially being able to help other mother childs again .. they have acted as catalysts for crossing the river by a mother childs pair at much reduced risk
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