What Does Catalytic Mean?

A catalytic substance means that it has catalytic powers, that is, it can speed up a reaction. If there is a reaction or process which is very slow and you add a catalyst in it, the rate of reaction will increase so much.

Catalytic is the adjective form of Catalysis. It involves something involving or relating to catalysis. Catalysis can be described as an event or condition under which a protagonist is forced into a quest or into the achieving of some goal.

The word however takes a slightly different meaning in the realm of science, where in chemistry and biology where the presence of a certain substance in a chemical reaction either helps it accelerate or slow down. The catalyst itself does not get affected even though it participates in the chemical reaction; it merely affects the reactions occurring between the other substances forming part of the reaction.

In the sense of an event being catalytic, in the recent history of Iraq the bombing of the shrine in Samara, Iraq can be described as a catalytic event that led to the start of an all out civil war, or that the bombing of the twin towers led to Americas war on terror.

Perhaps the most common use of the word "catalytic" now is in "catalytic converter" which is attached to the exhaust pipe of a car to reduce the harmful emissions from the combustion of petrol in the car engine.

A catalyst is a substance which speeds up a chemical reaction without being changed itself. Sometimes the reactions would have been so slow without a catalyst that it could be considered that the catalyst actually causes the reaction to occur.

So, for example, in the catalytic converter in your car there are small amounts of platinum, rhodium and palladium which take hold of Nitrogen oxides (which cause acid rain and photochemical smog) and make them break down to Nitrogen gas and Oxygen gas. They also take hold of Carbon monoxide and unreacted hydrocarbons and change them into less harmful carbon dioxide.

The precious metals themselves are unchanged by the reactions and so continue to clean up the exhaust fumes of the car.

A catalyst is a substance you add to speed up the process of a chemical reaction.