Homogenous catalysis

This is a system of molecules consisting of A2 and B2. If you run this model, you may not see any reaction. This is because the following elementary reactions have very high activation energies:
  • A2+B*-->AB+A*
  • B2+A*-->AB+B*
Catalysts provide alternative pathways for reactions:

Chain initiating reactions:

  1. A2+C-->AC+A*
  2. B2+C-->BC+B*
Chain termination reactions:
  1. A*+B*-->AB
  2. A*+BC-->AB+C
  3. B*+AC-->AB+C
Because the catalyst C (the gold balls) keeps on being regenerated, the chain reactions can go on and on until the reactants exhaust. (We do not need a lot of catalysts.)


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