If the
rate of reaction,
, is expressible in the form:
where A, B, ... are
reactants and

represents one of a set of catalysts, then the proportionality factor

is the catalytic
coefficient of the particular
catalyst
. Normally the partial
order of reaction 
with respect to a
catalyst is unity, so that

is an (α + β + ... + 1)th order
rate coefficient. The proportionality factor

is the ( α + β +...)th order
rate coefficient of the uncatalysed component of the total reaction. For example, if there is
catalysis by hydrogen and hydroxide ions, and the
rate constant can be expressed in the form:
![k = k 0 + k H + [ H + ] + k OH − [ OH − ]](../../mathml/C00885-8.png)
,
then

and

are the catalytic coefficients for
H+
and
OH−, respectively. The constant

relates to the uncatalysed reaction.
Source:
PAC, 1996, 68, 149
(A glossary of terms used in chemical kinetics, including reaction dynamics (IUPAC
Recommendations 1996))
on page 156
PAC, 1994, 66, 1077
(Glossary of terms used in physical organic chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1994))
on page 1093
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by
A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997).
XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic,
J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.