Home > Encyclopedia of Science > Catalyst and Catalysis

• History
• Types of catalysis
• Industrial applications

Catalysis (pronounced cat-AL-uh-sis) is the process by which some substance is added to a reaction in order to make the reaction occur more quickly. The substance that is added to produce this result is the catalyst (pronounced CAT-uh-list).

You are probably familiar with the catalytic convertor, a device used in car exhaust systems to remove gases that cause air pollution. The catalytic convertor gets its name from the fact that certain metals (the catalysts) inside the device cause exhaust gases to break down. For example, when potentially dangerous nitrogen(II) oxide passes through a catalytic convertor, platinum and rhodium catalysts cause the oxide to break down into harmless nitrogen and oxygen. Nitrogen(II) oxide will break down into nitrogen and...