Courses
Courses for Kids
Free study material
Offline Centres
More
Store Icon
Store
seo-qna
SearchIcon
banner

How do Lewis acids and bases differ from Bronsted-Lowry acids and bases?

Answer
VerifiedVerified
464.1k+ views
Hint Bronsted-Lowry defined the acids and bases on the basis of the exchange of the proton and Lewis defined the acids and bases on the basis of exchange of lone pairs of electrons.

Complete step by step answer:
Bronsted was a Danish chemist and Lowery was an English chemist independently and simultaneously gave their definition for acids and bases in 1923. Bronsted-Lowry defined the acids and bases on the basis of the exchange of the proton.
They defined the acid as the substance which can or have the tendency to give a proton or we can say that acid is a proton donor and they defined the base as the substance which can or have the tendency to accept the proton or we can say that base is a proton acceptor.
Some of the compounds did not fall in both the categories but they were acid and base, so G.N. Lewis, an American chemist, gave its definition for acids and bases in 1923. Lewis defined the acids and bases on the basis of the exchange of lone pairs of electrons.
He defined the acid as a substance which can or has the tendency to accept a pair of lone pair of electrons or we can say that acid is an electron pair acceptor and he defined the base as a substance which can or has the tendency to donate a pair of lone pair of electrons or we can say that acid is an electron-pair donor.

Note: According to Bronsted-Lowry $HCl$, $C{{H}_{3}}COOH$, etc are acids and $N{{H}_{3}}$, $CO_{3}^{2-}$, etc are bases, and according to Lewis $AlC{{l}_{3}}$, $FeC{{l}_{3}}$, $B{{F}_{3}}$, etc are acids and ${{F}^{-}}$, $R-OH$, $R-N{{H}_{2}}$, etc are bases.