A solid catalyst works at its surface. A student is told that a catalyst is more effective when it is spread out as a fine powder rather than used as a sing...
Question 1 Report
A solid catalyst works at its surface. A student is told that a catalyst is more effective when it is spread out as a fine powder rather than used as a single block. Why is the powdered catalyst more effective?
Answer Details
A solid catalyst is a heterogeneous catalyst: the reacting particles are adsorbed onto its surface, react there, and then leave. Only the exposed surface does any work, so the inside of a solid block is wasted.
Spreading the same mass out as a fine powder gives a much larger surface area, so many more reactant particles can be held and react at the same time, and the catalyst is more effective.
A catalyst does not raise the temperature of the mixture and does not change the concentration of the reactants; it lowers the activation energy of the pathway. It is also not used up, so the idea that a powder is better because it is consumed faster contradicts the definition of a catalyst.
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