Question

Which component is affected when a catalyst is added to a chemical reaction? the amount of substrate the activation energy the amount of product the concentration of reactants

Answer 1

The right answer is the activation energy.

The catalyst increases the reaction rate by introducing new reaction paths (mechanism), and lowering its activation energy, or activation Gibbs free energy. By doing this it can increase the speed, or lower the temperature of the reaction. It is important to note that the catalyst does not alter the total Gibbs free energy of the reaction which is a system state function and therefore has no effect on the equilibrium constant.

Answer 2

Answer : The correct option is, the activation energy

Explanation :

Activation energy : Activation energy is defined as the minimum amount of energy absorbed by the reactant molecules so that their energy becomes equal to the threshold energy.

During the chemical reaction, the reactants react to form product. When a catalyst is added to a chemical reaction then the reaction becomes faster that means the rate of reaction increases and the activation energy decreases.

In the given diagram, 'G' is the activation energy without catalyst and 'H' is the activation energy with catalyst.

The energy diagram is shown below.