Speaking of catalysts - I've been trying to find a suitable one for conversion of Ethanol (grain alcohol) to Diethyl Ether (as in anaesthetic ether). If I'm going to endure a post-apocalyptic future, I'm not going to do it without access to anaesthetics.
Of course, there are better ones available on the shelf, if the shelf is in a well-supplied hospital; I'm looking for one that can be produced as required when you don't have worldwide trade routes. I know it can be done with sulfuric acid and careful temperature control, but what I want is something that can be done with a solid catalyst, being easier to handle and recover, and preferably without tight reaction temperature constraints. Ideally, the catalyst would be very easy to make from raw materials; failing that, something that is easy to get and reasonably ubiquitous - that is the more difficult part. Almost as difficult is the reaction conditions. It looks like Alumina (Aluminium Oxide) will do it - at 300C/570F. Ether is gaseous well below this temperature and is highly flammable, so getting it to not explode when you're DIYing... I have some reading to do.... Time to dust off my chemistry textbooks...
If you are a prepper or survivalist, and you do appreciate the value of different people being able to bring different skills to the table, you really should adopt someone with some chemistry knowledge... Or, at least, encourage and assist them in experimenting.