Marriage Broking: Catalysis
A ‘catalyst’ is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself being consumed. The Chinese characters for catalyst, which translate as ‘marriage broker’, convey the sense exactly. For instance, a huge advance in industrial chemistry was achieved early in the twentieth century when the German chemist Fritz Haber (1868–1934) found that nitrogen and hydrogen could be induced to combine to form ammonia, NH3, if the two gases were heated under pressure in the presence of iron. They hardly react at all if iron is not present. Haber’s achievement has helped to save the world, as well as contributing not a little to its destruction. Ammonia is of prime importance for the production of fertilizers, and through that application catalysis has helped to feed the world. Ammonia is also of prime importance for the manufacture of explosives, and through that application catalysis has taken away with that hand some of what the other hand has provided. The chemical industry could not function without catalysts as they enable reactions to occur at economically viable rates. They also enable some reactions to occur which in their absence would not occur at all. Catalysts are used to refine fuels, thus enabling transport. They are used in the manufacture of polymers, thus enabling the fabrication of so many of the artefacts of everyday life as well as the fabrics of fashion and furnishings. Without catalysts there would be very little of what we recognize as the familiar modern world. Our bodies also function under the control of catalysts. Biological catalysts are called enzymes, and I describe their function in Reaction 27. There are two broad classes of catalyst. A ‘heterogeneous catalyst’ is typically a solid and the reagents are liquids or gases that flow over the solid and react as they come into contact with it; this is the case with Haber’s catalyst. A ‘homogeneous catalyst’ is a gas or a substance that dissolves in a liquid reaction mixture. Anthropogenic (human-made) chorine atoms, perhaps from aerosol gases that have travelled up into the stratosphere, are homogeneous catalysts for the destruction of ozone.