Title: general acid catalysis
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - general acid catalysis
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.G02609
Status: current

Definition
The catalysis of a chemical reaction by a series of Brønsted acids (which may include the solvated hydrogen ion) so that the rate of the catalysed part of the reaction is given by \(\sum k_{\rm{HA}}\ [HA]\) multiplied by some function of substrate concentrations. (The acids $\ce{HA}$ are unchanged by the overall reaction.) General catalysis by acids can be experimentally distinguished from specific catalysis by hydrogen cations (hydrons) by observation of the rate of reaction as a function of buffer concentration.

Related Terms
- Brønsted acids: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/B00744
- catalysis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C00874
- catalytic coefficient: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C00885
- hydrons: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/H02904
- intramolecular catalysis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/I03131
- pseudo-catalysis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04924
- rate of reaction: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/R05156
- specific catalysis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S05796
- substrate: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S06082

Source
- PAC, 1994, 66, 1077. 'Glossary of terms used in physical organic chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1994)' on page 1117 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199466051077)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/G02609/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/G02609/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/G02609/xml

Citation: Citation: 'general acid catalysis' in IUPAC Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 5th ed. International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry; 2025. Online version 5.0.0, 2025. 10.1351/goldbook.G02609
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Accessed: 2026-06-28T17:16:31+00:00