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How does a catalyst speed up a reaction? A - OCR Gateway - GCSE Chemistry: Combined Science - Question 1 - 2019 - Paper 4
Question 1
How does a catalyst speed up a reaction? A. it decreases the activation energy. B. It decreases the energy of the reactant particles. C. It increases the activati... show full transcript
Worked Solution & Example Answer:How does a catalyst speed up a reaction? A - OCR Gateway - GCSE Chemistry: Combined Science - Question 1 - 2019 - Paper 4
Step 1
A. it decreases the activation energy.
Answer
A catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without being consumed in the process. It achieves this by providing an alternative reaction pathway that has a lower activation energy compared to the uncatalyzed reaction. Consequently, more reactant particles have enough energy to successfully collide and react, hence speed up the reaction.