Question

What are the limitations of Bronsted Lowery theory?

Answer 1

Hint: Bronsted Lowery theory is used to explain the acidic and basic nature of compounds depending upon their ability either to lose the proton or accept the proton.

Complete answer:
According to Bronsted Lowery theory a compound is said to be acidic only when it is ca[able to donate or lose a proton and any compound is considered as base only when it is capable of accepting the proton.
Bronsted Lowery theory has overall more advantages than the previous theory of Arrhenius, but still there are some flaws in this theory.
In Bronsted Lowery theory a base in liquid state is always required to accept the proton generated during the reaction but when reaction between acidic oxides and basic oxides take place there is no need of base in the reaction.
Therefore, the chemical reaction between acidic oxides like $C{O_2},S{O_2},S{O_3}$ and basic oxides like $CaO,BaO,MgO$ in the complete absence of solvent is not explained by Bronsted Lowery theory.
In practice, the reaction between acidic oxides and basic oxides is feasible in absence of solvent to form salt.
$CaO + S{O_3} \to CaS{O_4}$
Another limitation of Bronsted Lowery theory includes inability to explain acidic properties of some specific compounds which do not have any proton in their chemical formula but still act as an acid.
Substances like boron trifluoride $\left( {B{F_3}} \right)$, aluminium trichloride $\left( {AlC{l_3}} \right)$ do not have any hydrogen atom which is able to release in the form of proton during the reaction but still they act as acid .
The main reason for their acidity is due to their ability to accept a lone pair of electrons into their vacant orbital.
Both of these compounds have empty orbits which have capability to accept lone pairs of electrons and hence act.
Hence, we can see that Bronsted Lowery theory is limited to explain the acidity of only protons containing compounds.

Note:
In simpler words we can say that all the compounds which are acidic according to Arrhenius theory are also acidic according to Bronsted Lowery theory but all the compounds which are acidic according to Bronsted Lowery theory are not acidic according to Arrhenius theory.