Question

How are catalysts used in everyday life?

Answer 1

Catalyst is a substance that increases the rate of a chemical reaction without itself going under any chemical change and without getting used up in the reaction. The phenomenon which uses a catalyst is called catalysis. There are two types of catalysis process based on the phase in which reactant and catalyst are present.

Complete answer:
Catalyst is used widely in our day-to-day life.
Enzymes are the biological catalyst that catalyzes all the metabolic reactions occurring in our body. They are proteinases in nature. There are some nucleic acids also that behave like an enzyme. Eg. Ribozymes.
Enzymes lower the activation energy of a reaction and increase the rate of a reaction. They possess active sites where the substrate binds with the enzyme and is converted into products.
Some of the biological enzyme-catalyzed reactions are-
Inversion of cane sugar- Cane sugar is converted into glucose and fructose by the help of an invertase enzyme.
Conversion of glucose into ethyl alcohol – In Yeast, zymase enzymes convert glucose into ethanol and carbon dioxide.
In the stomach, the Pepsin enzyme converts protein into peptides. Rennin is an enzyme found in infants to help in digestion of milk protein.
Enzymes present in pancreatic juice, like
trypsin, chymotrypsin converts peptides and proteins into peptides.
Amylase converts starch into disaccharides.
Lipases breakdown fats into diglycerides and monoglycerides.
Nucleases convert nucleic acids into nucleotides and nucleotides.
In the intestine, enzymes present in succus entericus like dipeptidases, lactase, sucrase, nucleotides, etc. convert macromolecules into a simple absorbable form. The simple substance formed is absorbed in the jejunum and ileum part of the small intestine.
Lactobacillus produces enzymes to convert milk into curd.

Note:
Sometimes, besides the protein part some enzymes contain non-protein constituents too. These non-protein constituents are called cofactors. If cofactors are removed from the enzyme it loses catalytic activity. Cofactors are of three kinds- Prosthetic group, Coenzyme and metal ions.