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
Imagine iron rusting. You probably think of water, right?
Water is not involved in the chemical reaction of rust at all. Rust is when you take Fe and add some oxygen to make it Fe2O3. There’s no water molecules here. We’re not stripping oxygen from water and producing rust + hydrogen gas.
What happens is the water allows the oxidation process to occur more easily. I don’t know the exact mechanism, but maybe the oxygen dissolved in water has an easier time bonding to Fe than oxygen in the air. Perhaps the water is dissolving a bit of Fe from the surface and making a small galvanic cell.
It’s even possible that water is involved somewhere in the intermediate chemical reaction, for example:
O + H2O = 2 OH
2 Fe + 3 OH = Fe2(OH)3
Fe2(OH)3 +3 OH =Fe2O3 +3 H2O
It’s possible that the above sequence is easier than the simple 2Fe + 3O= Fe2O3.
So even if the catalyst is “used” it’s also produced, so in the end you have the exact same amount as you started. You lose Fe and O as rust is produced, but no water disappears.
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