Catalysis and Surface Science

JAN 01, 1999

Modern surface physics is transforming the black art of catalysis, revealing a fascinating choreography followed by reacting atoms and molecules.

DOI: 10.1063/1.882569

Gerhard Ertl

Hans‐Joachim Freund

In 1835 the Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius coined the term “catalysis” to describe chemical reactions in which progress is affected by a substance that is not consumed in the reaction and hence is apparently not involved in the reaction. Both the term and the phenomenon were heavily debated throughout the rest of the 19th century until the German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald proposed a now generally accepted definition: “A catalyst is a substance that accelerates the rate of a chemical reaction without being part of its final products.” the catalyst acts by forming intermediate compounds with the molecules involved in the reaction, offering them an alternate, more rapid path to the final products.

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More about the Authors

Gerhard Ertl. Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin.

Hans‐Joachim Freund. Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, Berlin.