Answer to Question #110688 in Chemistry for Geofrey

Question

Does catalyst increase rate of a reaction by increasing activation energy

Answer 1

A catalyst increases the rate of a chemical reaction by lowering the activation energy.

More exactly, the catalyst makes the reaction follow an alternative mechanism, for which the activation energy is lower.

Arrhenius equation is the mathematical form of the relationship between the activation energy $E_a$ and the rate of a reaction $k$ :

$k = Ae^{E_a/RT}$ .

In this equation, $A$ is the pre-exponential factor, $R$ is the universal gas constant and $T$ is the temperature in kelvin.

Answer: No, a catalyst doesn't increase rate of a reaction by increasing activation energy.