Gibbs Free energy + catalysts

Question

Hi, I have a question on Gibbs Free energy problems that I am doing right now.. My teacher was going over how catalysts speed up some reactions, but I am unsure how the temperature would have any effect on how fast the reaction would go?

jaker1523 · Accepted Answer

Thank you, that actually helped a lot!

Tyler Heald · Answer

Hey there, So! The best way to go about this is to think about what a catalyst is exactly? A catalyst is something that speeds up the process of a chemical reaction. It does this by lowering the amount of activation energy required in order to start the reaction..  Now as far as temperature goes, it will also affect the rate of the reaction whether it be fast or slow. If you have an increase in temperature, this will provide a faster reaction, and a decrease in temperature will provide a slower reaction.   In very basic terms the best way to think about this is thinking of states of matter. If something is frozen solid, the molecules of that substance are very slow moving and have little to no energy in order to cause a reaction. But then, think about a gas.When something is in the gas form, it is most likely at a very high temperature.  A gas has molecules moving at super fast speeds all around with a high amount of energy.  This would definitely help a reaction to get started.   As far as the chemical reaction goes with the catalyst, think about that frozen block I described earlier, if I left it outside for a while it would melt eventually yes. But if I say took a hair dryer or something that emits a significant amount of heat and turned it on to that block of ice, it would certainly speed up the process to change from ice to water, this is a chemical reaction.   This is in very basic terms just wanted to put it in simpler terms I know these things can be tough! Keep at it ! Does that answer your question? I hope it helped ! Let me know if you have any other questions !