Catalysts and Inhibitors

[laurence14b2f]

Hey folks! Can someone explain how the presence of catalysts or inhibitors affects the rate law of a second-order reaction? Thanks!

[Lan Wei 3I]

The presence of a catalyst would lower the activation energy and thus the energy barrier. Changing the activation energy can then affect the rate constant, k. When Ea increases, k decreases, and vice versa. This makes sense because with a higher activation energy, the energy barrier required for the reactants to break bonds is higher, which results in a smaller k.