General acid-base catalysis, description

As implied above, there is nothing dramatically special about photocatalysis. It is simply another type of catalysis alongside, as it were, redox catalysis, acid-base catalysis, enzyme catalysis, thermal catalysis and others. Consequently, it is worth reemphasising that any description of photocatalysis must correspond to the general definition of catalysis. This said, it could be argued that the broad label photocatalysis simply describes catalysis of a photochemical reaction. 

Hydrolysis of aspirin in H2 0 leads to no incorporation of into the product salicylic acid, ruling out the anhydride as an intermediate and thereby excluding mechanism 1. The general acid catalysis of mechanism III can be ruled out on the basis of failure of other nucleophiles to show evidence for general acid catalysis by the neighboring carboxylic acid group. Because there is no reason to believe hydroxide should be special in this way, mechanism III is eliminated. Thus, mechanism II, general base catalysis of hydroxide-ion attack, is believed to be the correct description of the hydrolysis of aspirin. 

In general terms, a solid acid may be understood to be a solid on which the color of a basic indicator changes or a solid on which a base is chemically adsorbed. More strictly, following both the Bronsted and Lewis definitions, a solid acid shows a tendency to donate a proton or to accept an electron pair, whereas a solid base tends to accept a proton or to donate an electron pair. These definitions are adequate for an understanding of the acid-base phenomena shown by various solids, and are convenient for a clear description of solid acid and base catalysis. 

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