Question

What is a catalyst? How does a catalyst increase the rate of a chemical reaction?

Answer 1

catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any chemical change.

the reactant particles may collide with each other to posess certain amount of energy and leads to foramtion of products. without catalyst activation energy barrier between reactants and products is high.

when catalyst is added the reaction takes place to the new path having less energy barrier i.e activation energy of reaction decreases in presence of catalyst. therefore rate of reaction increases