A catalyst is a substance, which speeds up a reaction, but is chemically unchanged at the end of the reaction. A catalyst changes the rate of a reaction and is usually used to make a reaction go faster. A catalyst lowers the activation energy (minimum energy required to start a reaction) required in a chemical reaction. Catalysts are important in industrial processes to save energy and reduce costs. Examples of some catalysts are:
1) Iron, which is used as a catalyst in making ammonia.
2) Vanadium oxide, which is used as a catalyst in making sulphuric acid.
3) Platinum and rhodium, which are used as a catalyst in making nitric acid.
I am going to talk about the first example which is the use of Iron
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It is used to produce nitric acid (HNO3).
It is used to manufacture certain products such as sulfa drugs, vitamins and cosmetics.
It is used to extract certain metals such as copper, nickel and molybdenum from their ores.
Atmospheric nitrogen is not useful but when nitrogen fixation( nitrogen fixation is the e conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia) takes place, nitrogen becomes very useful. It biosynthesizes the building blocks of plants. Nitrogen is identified as one of the most essential nutrient for plan growth.
The Haber process
In 1905,Fritz Haber fixed nitrogen from air. Nitrogen gas and hydrogen gas to create ammonia. The process was soon scaled up by Carl Bosch. Ammonia is manufactured by the Haber process. The Process combines nitrogen from the air with hydrogen derived mainly from natural gas (methane) into ammonia. The reaction is reversible and the production of ammonia is exothermic( releases heat). Nitrogen and hydrogen react together only if there is: 1) high temperature 2) high pressure 3) an iron catalyst
The reaction is:
nitrogen + hydrogen ammonia
N2(g) + 3H2(g) 2NH3(g)
A diagrammatic way of showing The Haber
a description in which you may be able to define the uses of these in our every day
Background information:. Enzyme Enzymes are protein molecules that act as the biological catalysts. A Catalyst is a molecule which can speed up chemical reactions but remains unchanged at the end of the reaction. Enzymes catalyze most of the metabolic reactions that take place within a living organism. They speed up the metabolic reactions by lowering the amount of energy.
The reactions that take place to convert the harmful gasses to un-harmful gasses could not occur without the right amount of energy, for a reaction to take place it has to reach the correct activation energy. Activation energy is the minimum amount of energy that the reacting species must have in order to undergo the specified reaction. The catalytic converter helps the thermodynamic process by decreasing the activation energy needed for the reaction to take place. The catalyst will not form a product but will change the speed of the reaction.
being used up, for that is a property of a catalyst is, it speeds up a
Chemical kinetics is a branch of chemistry that involves reaction rates and the steps that follow in. It tells you how fast a reaction can happen and the steps it takes to make complete the reaction (2). An application of chemical kinetics in everyday life is the mechanics of popcorn. The rate it pops depends on how much water is in a kernel. The more water it has the quicker the steam heats up and causes a reaction- the popping of the kernel (3). Catalysts, temperature, and concentration can cause variations in kinetics (4).
Due to the natural processes of magma flow, hydrothermal gradients, sedimentation, and evaporation, minerals are concentrated in various areas of the Earth’s crust. Obtaining these minerals for human use involves four general steps. • Locating the minerals • Then, extracting the minerals from the Earth in the form of ore or rock Then, processing (smelting) the ore to separate the impurities from the desired mineral. Finally, creating a useful product from the minerals. Procedure 1.
• The use of a catalyst will speed up the reaction as long as the catalysts electrode potentials are feasible for each step in the reaction. Since a catalyst lowers the activation energy and takes the reaction through a different route, according to the Maxwell-Boltzmann diagram, at a constant temperature more particles are able to react as demonstrated by the diagrams below:
We had begun to experiment with the elements, trying to accomplish transmutation and creating the “elixir of life”. In china, their alchemists were trying to create the “elixir of life” for their emperors. The elixir was said to cure any disease and/or give one eternal life. However, the ingredients they were using were questionable. They had used substances like arsenic, mercury, and sulfur. Alchemists had transformed the chemical elements into the first rudimentary periodic tables and introduced the process of distillation to Western Europe. Also, they were among the first to extract metals from ores and compose various inorganic acids and bases. Alchemist were the ones to lay down the stepping stones to the creation of
... accounts for 95% of the hydrogen produced today. In addition to steam reforming, another natural gas-hydrogen process called partial oxidation produces hydrogen by burning methane in the presence of air. Both methods produce a synthesis gas, which is then reacted with additional steam to produce a higher yield, higher hydrogen content gas stream.
If a reactant is a solid, then breaking it up into smaller pieces (but keeping the mass the same) will increase its surface area. If there is a larger surface area the reacting particles will have more of an area to react with, therefore there will be more collisions. 4. A catalyst works by giving the reacting particles something to stick to where they can collide with each other, because they are all attracted to the catalyst there are going to be more collisions. A catalyst does not get used up in a reaction.
Chemical kinetics is the study and examination of chemical reactions regarding re-arrangement of atoms, reaction rates, effect of various variables, and more. Chemical reaction rates, are the rates of change in amounts or concentrations of either products or reactants. Concentration of solutions, surface area, catalysts, temperature and the nature of reactants are all factors that can influence a rate of reaction. Increasing the concentration of a solution allows the rate of reaction to increase because highly concentrated solutions have more molecules and as a result the molecules collide faster. Surface area also affects a
Enzymes are protein molecules that are made by organisms to catalyze reactions. Typically, enzymes speeds up the rate of the reaction within cells. Enzymes are primarily important to living organisms because it helps with metabolism and the digestive system. For example, enzymes can break larger molecules into smaller molecules to help the body absorb the smaller pieces faster. In addition, some enzyme molecules bind molecules together. However, the initial purpose of the enzyme is to speed up reactions for a certain reason because they are “highly selective catalysts” (Castro J. 2014). In other words, an enzyme is a catalyst, which is a substance that increases the rate of a reaction without undergoing changes. Moreover, enzymes work with
[ IMAGE] 4. What is the difference between a.. Catalysts increase the number of collisions. A catalyst works by giving the reacting particles a surface to stick to where they can. bump into each other.
The TWC purifies engine exhaust by oxidising CO and HC to CO2 and H2O, and reducing NOx to N2. A matrix of thousands of parallel channels gives modern monolith TWCs the desired combination of large surface area and low-pressure drop. Large surface area is needed for high reaction rates, and pressure drop must be small to not adversely affect engine performance. The substrate, made of cordierite, is coated with a very high surface area washcoat comprising mainly of alumina, ceria, is dispersed over the washcoat.
Nitrogen fertilizer is often synthesized using the Haber-Bosch process, which produces ammonia. This ammonia is then used to produce other compounds (notably anhydrous ammonium nitrate and urea) which can be applied to fields. These concentrated products may be used as fertilizer or diluted with water to form a concentrated liquid fertilizer, UAN. Ammonia can also be used in combination with rock phosphate and potassium fertilizer to produce compound fertilizers.