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The passage around this formula

A catalyst does its work by opening a lower-energy pathway between reactants and products — typically by binding an intermediate, weakening a bond that would otherwise need more thermal energy to break, and then releasing the product so the surface is free for another cycle. The energetics of that binding step follow a well-established shape: bind too weakly and the reactant never activates; bind too strongly and the product never leaves. Plotted against binding energy, catalytic 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…

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