Chemistry. — ''TIte Dislocation Theory of Catalysis." By Prof. J. 



BÖRSKKEN. 



(Gommunicaled at the meeting of May 27, 1922). 



The explanation of the catalytic phenomena has always presented 

 great difficulties, and has never been satisfactory as yet, because 

 tlie cause of changes of reaction-velocity was to be ascertained with- 

 out there seeming to be a clear relation between the velocity of 

 reaction and the quantity of energy that came into play. 



Before the catalytic phenomena had been brought in connection 

 with the conception of free energy, satisfaction might be found in 

 establishing the fact that one or more intermediate reactions took 

 place, which together proceeded more rapidly than the reaction 

 without catalyst. 



And it is still possible to be satisfied with such an explanation 

 when it can also be shown that the catalyst in quantity and quality 

 is eventually regaijied unchanged from the reaction mass. 



It should, however, be fully realized that no answer is given to 

 the question why these internjediate reactions proceed more rapidly 

 than the principal reaction. 



This is the more striking, because in these intermediate reactions 

 the catalyst disappears from the reaction-mass at least temporarily 

 and partially. I have, therefore, pointed out that the ideal catalysts 

 are exactly those that are not fixed in intermediate reactions, and 

 tliat the real catalysis is the interaction between the catalyst and 

 the molecules, which has nothing to do with the formation of a 

 compound as such. 



This interaction, which I have called dislocation, may be seen as 

 a change of the paths of the electrons; it is very well possible that 

 it cannot take place until the catalyst has formed a compound with 

 the molecules, but at any rate it must be possible to show it in 

 some way or other and to express it in a mathematical form. 



On one side it is therefore necessary to form a clear conception 

 of the dislocation, on the other side the modifications which take 

 place in the thermodynamic relations through the presence of a 

 catalyst and to which the changes of tlie reaction velocities respond, 

 must be fixed in a mathematical formula by establishing a connec- 



