Title: specific catalysis
Long Title: IUPAC Gold Book - specific catalysis
DOI: 10.1351/goldbook.S05796
Status: current

Definition
The acceleration of a reaction by a unique catalyst, rather than by a family of related substances. The term is most commonly used in connection with specific hydrogen-ion or hydroxide-ion (lyonium ion or lyate ion) catalysis.

Related Terms
- acceleration: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/A00051
- catalysis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C00874
- catalyst: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/C00876
- general acid catalysis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/G02609
- general base catalysis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/G02610
- lyate ion: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/L03653
- lyonium ion: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/L03654
- pseudo-catalysis: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/P04924

Source
- PAC, 1994, 66, 1077. 'Glossary of terms used in physical organic chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1994)' on page 1165 (https://doi.org/10.1351/pac199466051077)

Other Outputs
- html: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S05796/html
- json: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S05796/json
- xml: https://goldbook.iupac.org/terms/view/S05796/xml

Citation: Citation: 'specific 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.S05796
License: The IUPAC Gold Book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike CC BY-SA 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) for individual terms.
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Disclaimer: The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) is continuously reviewing and, where needed, updating terms in the Compendium of Chemical Terminology (the IUPAC Gold Book). Users of these terms are encouraged to include the version of a term with its use and to check regularly for updates to term definitions that you are using.
Accessed: 2026-06-28T18:56:55+00:00