Abstract
THE term “catalytic” was introduced by Berzelius to describe a number of chemical actions which would only take place in the presence of a third substance, which itself was apparently unchanged throughout the reaction. The first cases of such actions were investigated by Sir Humphry Davy in 1817. He showed that many mixtures of gases were caused to unite in the presence of finely divided platinum at temperatures far below those at which union ordinarily took place. Some years afterwards Faraday investigated similar actions, and attempted to explain them by a supposed condensation of the gases on the surface of the metal.
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Ionisation of Gases and Chemical Change 1 . Nature 84, 388–389 (1910). https://doi.org/10.1038/084388a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/084388a0