Symbol Δ E_bind

The passage around this formula

…activity for a given reaction traces an inverted-U — the Sabatier principle — and the best catalysts sit as close as possible to the peak. Here the activation energy $E_a$ is itself a function of the binding energy $\Delta$ $E_{\text{bind}}$ , so tuning a catalyst is really tuning where on that curve a given surface sits — through composition, structure, and the local electronic environment around active sites. This is why catalyst discovery is not a search over infinite possibilities so much as a search over a…

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