Catalytic Reaction Characteristics

1. Catalysts can only accelerate reactions that are thermodynamically possible. When it is required to develop a catalyst for a new chemical reaction, the reaction must first be analyzed thermodynamically to see if it is a thermodynamically feasible reaction.
2. The catalyst can only accelerate the reaction towards equilibrium, but cannot change the equilibrium position (equilibrium constant) of the reaction.
3. The catalyst is selective to the reaction. When the reaction may have more than one direction, the catalyst only accelerates one of them, and the promotion reaction rate and selectivity are unified.
4. The life of the catalyst. A catalyst can alter the rate of a chemical reaction, ideally the catalyst is not altered by the reaction. However, in the actual reaction process, some irreversible physical and chemical changes will also occur when the catalyst is exposed to heat and chemical action for a long time.
According to the definition and characteristic analysis of catalysts, there are three important catalyst indicators: activity, selectivity, and stability.