Abstract
THE treatment of the subject must depend upon the definition that is given of the term. Is or is not catalysis to be regarded as the synonym of chemical change in general? Berzelius, the author (1835) of the term, who developed the conception, included among catalysts agents so diverse as sulphuric acid (e.g. the production of ether and the hydrolysis of starch); platinum, especially in the spongy form (e.g. the formation of water from hydrogen and oxygen and the oxidation of alcohol); and enzymes (e.g. the hydrolysis of starch by diastase). Such agents have, in common, the power of acting reversibly, so that they may eventually be recovered, if not soiled by some secondary change.
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ARMSTRONG, H. Catalysis and Oxidation1. Nature 116, 294–297 (1925). https://doi.org/10.1038/116294a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/116294a0