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What did Georges Lemoine’s hydriodic acid experiment show about catalysts and equilibrium?

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In 1877, Georges Lemoine demonstrated that the decomposition of hydriodic acid into hydrogen and iodine reached the same equilibrium point (19 percent at 350 °C) regardless of whether the reaction proceeded slowly in the gas phase or rapidly in the presence of a platinum sponge catalyst.1

This experiment provided crucial evidence that catalysts do not alter the position of equilibrium in a chemical reaction. Furthermore, it established the important principle that a substance acting as a catalyst for a forward reaction must also catalyze the corresponding reverse reaction.1