(c) Do catalysts
affect the overall enthalpy change for a reactio...

Question

(c) Do catalysts
affect the overall enthalpy change for a reaction,
the activation energy, or both?

Accepted Answer

Hello everyone. Today we have the following problem. True or false. The overall entropy change and activation of activation energy of reaction are both affected by the catalyst. Well, let's start by defining what these are. So first let's define what a catalyst is. In simplest terms, a catalyst is a material that speeds up a chemical reaction. So it speeds up a chemical reaction and it doesn't undergo any sort of transformation itself. And so let's now look at what entropy changes. So entropy changes essentially just the total change and entropy for reaction of a reaction. And so since it solely depends on the chemical composition of the reaction of the reactions and products, it is not affected. So it is not affected by a catalyst because it only depends on the reactant and products don't reactant and the products. So let's now look at activation energy. So activation energy and simplest terms can be defined as the energy that's needed to basically Kickstarter reaction. So it's the minimum energy needed to start a reaction, basically turned a reactant into a product. And so the catalyst and how this is how it speeds up the reaction. It actually lowers so a catalyst lowers this energy. And so with that, this statement is going to be overall false because while the activation energy can be affected, the infinity change cannot. And with that, we've answered the question overall, I hope this helped. And until next time.

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