Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Autocatalysis
open-in-new
<p>In <a href="/facts/Chemistry/SrNqkGVm">chemistry</a>, a <a href="/facts/Chemical_reaction/GpqWlKrz">chemical reaction</a> is said to be autocatalytic if one of the reaction <a href="/facts/Product_(chemistry)/8uCoDUdv">products</a> is also a <a href="/facts/Catalyst/LPBS7TQC">catalyst</a> for the same reaction. Many forms of autocatalysis are recognized. </p><p>A <i>set</i> of chemical reactions can be said to be "collectively autocatalytic" if a number of those reactions produce, as reaction products, catalysts for enough of the other reactions that the entire set of chemical reactions is self-sustaining given an input of energy and food molecules (see <a href="/facts/Autocatalytic_set/6CuSM0sF">autocatalytic set</a>). </p>