Guest Ahned Posted October 2, 2016 Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 What makes a certain Catalyst better than the others? For instance, what makes sulfuric acid a better catalyst when synthesizing acetylsalicylic acid than other catalysts? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
kw0573 Posted October 2, 2016 Report Share Posted October 2, 2016 From a high school chemistry level, catalysts are reaction-specific and provides an alternative reaction pathway. When you study (more) organic chemistry reactions in the future, you can learn about how catalysts interact with reactants in the mechanism. In the synthesis of aspirin, you should look up the mechanism. Usually for an acid-catalyzed reaction, sulfuric acid is a very very strong acid and avoids other reactions, such as nucleophilic substitutions by Cl- if HCl was used instead. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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