CHEMISTRY COMMUNITY

How do you identify catalysts and intermediates in a reaction?

Intermediates are formed as products in one elementary reaction and immediately used in the following elementary reaction. They can be cancelled out from 2 successive reactions. Catalysts are used for a reaction (kind of like a reactant) but are not consumed in the following reaction as a reactant.

Intermediates will first be formed as a product and then used up as a reactant while catalyst will first be used as a reactant and then show up a product.

A catalyst has to be there for a reaction to begin, whereas an intermediate is formed during one of the elementary steps and then used up in a later step.

It is important to note that when you look at the elementary reactions, you can see that the catalyst is consumed at the beginning and then regenerated as a product later in the experiment