Chemistry - Chemical Kinetics Question with Solution | TestHub

The assertion is true: positive catalysts increase reaction rates. The reason is false: catalysts lower the activation energy ($E_a$) of a reaction, providing an alternative reaction pathway. They do not change the standard Gibbs free energy change ($\Delta G^{\circ }$) of the overall reaction, as $\Delta G^{\circ }$ is a state function and depends only on the initial and final states, not the path taken.