Question

What happens to equilibrium when a catalyst is added?

Answer 1

Catalyst:

1. A substance that affects the rate of a chemical reaction but there is no chemical change from the process.

Effect of catalyst on equilibrium:

1. A catalyst speeds up a reaction by creating a new low-energy pathway for converting reactants to products.
2. It speeds up forward and reverses reactions that pass through the same transition state while having no effect on the equilibrium constant.
3. It has no effect on a reaction mixture's equilibrium composition.
4. It does not occur in the balanced chemical equation or in the expression of the equilibrium constant.
5. For the same amount, it lowers the activation energy of both forward and reverses processes.