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What is Catalyst? What is the effect of catalyst on the rate of a reaction?

Answer
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Hint: In a chemical reaction, the rate of reaction refers to how quickly the products are produced from the reactants. It provides some insight into how quickly a reaction can be completed.

Complete answer:
A catalyst is any material in chemistry that increases the rate of a reaction without being ingested. To put it another way, it's a material that speeds up a chemical reaction without changing its identity. A catalyst is a material that speeds up or slows down the rate of a chemical reaction. The rate of reaction is accelerated by a positive catalyst. The rate of reaction is slowed by a negative catalyst. Catalyst has no effect on the number of products produced.
When a catalyst is present, an alternate pathway with lower activation energy becomes possible. Since less energy is needed for success, more collisions are successful. After the reaction is complete, the catalyst can be recovered and used again and again. Catalysts are substances that speed up the rate at which a reaction occurs. Catalysts work by lowering the energy of the rate-limiting transition state, which speeds up reactions. Catalysts have no effect on a reaction's equilibrium state.
Catalysts introduce a new reaction pathway with a lower Activation Energy. By lowering the activation energy, a catalyst speeds up a reaction by allowing more reactant molecules to collide with enough energy to overcome the lower energy barrier.

Note:
Catalysis is said to be homogeneous when the reactants and catalyst are in the same step. The reactant molecules are in a different step than the heterogeneous catalyst.