Acids and Bases: Lewis vs. Bronsted. There are two complementary definitions of acids and bases that are important: the Bronsted (or Bronsted-Lowry) definition: an acid is a proton (H+ ion) donor, and a base is a proton acceptor; the Lewis definition: an acid is an electron acceptor, and a base is an electron donor.
Why is ammonia considered to be a Bronsted Lowry base?
In contrast to the acid definition, a Bronsted-Lowry base is a substance that accepts protons. An example of a proton acceptor is ammonia (NH3). The ammonia is happy to accept a proton from the hydrogen of water (H2O) to become NH4. NH3 + H2O = NH4+ + OH-.
What is the Bronsted base?
Brønsted–Lowry theory, also called proton theory of acids and bases, a theory, introduced independently in 1923 by the Danish chemist Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted and the English chemist Thomas Martin Lowry, stating that any compound that can transfer a proton to any other compound is an acid, and the compound that
What happens when you mix an acid and a base?
Bases have a pH greater than 7 and can accept a proton or produce an OH- ion in a reaction. Now, if you had more acid than base in this reaction, not all of the acid would react, so the result would be salt, water, and leftover acid, so the solution would still be acidic (pH < 7 ).