DETAIL ON CATALYSIS

Berzelius in 1836 found that there are substance that increase the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed. He believed that the function of such substance was to weaken the bonds that hold the atoms in the reacting molecules together. Thus he coined the term catalyst for such substances. The word catalyst is derived from Greek word; kata = wholly and lein = to loosen. themselves In most of the cases catalysts increase the rate of chemical reactions, but a number of cases are known in which catalysts are also found to decrease the rate of reactions. Thus a catalyst is defined as a chemical substance that alters the rate of a chemical reaction without itself undergoing any change in mass and its chemical composition. When potassium chlorate is heated, it melts at about 340 ° C but no oxygen is evolved. It decomposes to evolve oxygen only around 600 ° C. However, on the addition of a little amount of manganese...