why or how catalysts speed up chemical reactions

Question

I’ve asked this question to multiple teachers and googled it multiple times only to hear “yeah if you put a catalyst in a chemical it reacts faster” but I want to know what the catalyst actually does to do this

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

People have described catalysts that react with other reactants. There are also catalysts that just facilitate the reaction in other way.

For example in molecular clouds in outer space, lots of chemical reaction happen at the surface of grains of ice (mostly water ice), because molecules and atoms that stick to the surface of those grains are more likely to meet each other and react.