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How do catalysts affect the time needed for a reaction to reach equilibrium?
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catalysis
Nanoparticles of a gold-palladium (yellow-blue) alloy supported on acid-treated carbon (gray) directly catalyzing hydrogen peroxide formation from hydrogen (white) and oxygen (red) while shutting off unwanted hydrogen peroxide decomposition.
Catalysts accelerate the rate of a chemical reaction by lowering the activation energy required for the process to occur. Because a catalyst facilitates both the forward and reverse reactions equally, it does not alter the final position of chemical equilibrium. Instead, a catalyst serves only to decrease the time required for a reaction to reach that state of equilibrium.12