The phenomenon of catalysis has been utilized by mankind for many centuries. However, it wasn’t until 1811 that Kirchhof conducted the first formal experiment on catalysis. He found that sugar was formed from starch in the presence of a small amount of sulfuric acid which could be recovered after the reaction. Davy discovered that a hot platinum wire maintained the combustion of alcohol or ether vapors in the presence of air without the metal being chemically changed. These findings finally led to the invention of the miner’s safety-lamp.
Soon after, this heterogeneous process was also described by his cousin who prepared finely-divided platinum that acted in the same manner but at room temperature. Around the same time, Thénard approached the concept of catalysis based on his results obtained from experiments with hydrogen peroxide although he never coined it as such. Dulong and Thénard then further investigated Döbereiner’s experiments where a stream of hydrogen gas over platinum sponge could be ignited. Mitscherlich drew some important conclusions about the formation of ether and water from alcohol in the presence of sulfuric acid. All these observations led the influential chemist Berzelius to formulate a new term: catalysis. In 1835, he described it in the following way…
