Viviana's Chemistry Notebook

IV. Problems with the Theory
This theory works very nicely in all protic solvents (water, ammonia, acetic acid, etc.), but fails to
explain acid base behavior in aprotic solvents such as benzene and dioxane. That job will be left for a
more general theory, such as the Lewis Theory of Acids and Bases.
The Lewis theory of acids and bases
I. Introduction
Lewis gives his definition of an acid and a base:
"We are inclined to think of substances as possessing acid or basic properties, without having a
particular solvent in mind. It seems to me that with complete generality we may say that a basic
substance is one which has a lone pair of electrons which may be used to complete the stable group
of another atom, and that an acid is one which can employ a lone pair from another molecule in
completing the stable group of one of its own atoms."
"In other words, the basic substance furnishes a pair of electrons for a chemical bond, the acid
substance accepts such a pair."
It is important to make two points here:
1. NO hydrogen ion need be involved.
2. NO solvent need be involved.
The Lewis theory of acids and bases is more general than the "one sided" nature of the Bronsted-
Lowry theory. Keep in mind that Bronsted-Lowry, which defines an acid as a proton donor and a base
as a proton acceptor, REQUIRES the presence of a solvent, specifically a protic solvent, of which
water is the usual example. Since almost all chemistry is done in water, the fact that this limits the
Bronsted-Lowry definition is of little practical consequence.
The Lewis definitions of acid and base do not have the constraints that the Bronsted-Lowry theory
does and, as we shall see, many more reactions were seen to be acid base in nature using the Lewis
definition than when using the Bronsted-Lowry definitions.
II. The Acid Base Theory
The modern way to define a Lewis acid and base is a bit more concise than above:
Acid: an electron acceptor.
Base: an electron donor.
A "Lewis acid" is any atom, ion, or molecule which can accept electrons and a "Lewis base" is any
atom, ion, or molecule capable of donating electrons. However, a warning: many textbooks will say
"electron pair" where I have only written "electron." The truth is that it sometimes is an electron pair
and sometimes it is not.
It turns out that it may be more accurate to say that "Lewis acids" are substances which are electrondeficient
(or low electron density) and "Lewis bases" are substances which are electron-rich (or high
electron density).
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