Catalysts

A lower hill to climb

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Energy profiles: reactants, a hill (Eₐ) at the transition state, products (ΔH).
• Catalysts provide a lower hill; rates rise by e^(ΔEₐ/RT).
• Catalysts don’t change ΔH or the final balance, only the speed.

Steps

1. An energy hill
2. Catalysts
3. A thousand times faster
4. What a catalyst can’t do
5. Enzymes
6. Going backwards