Lewis Structures for Acids and Bases

[Ken Woo 1K]

In lecture, the professor showed us how F- can act as a lewis base that donates electrons to BF3, which acts as a lewis acid, to ultimately form BF4. During this part, I recall that the professor drew a line to show which directions the electrons were moving between the lewis acids and bases. Would we have to express the electron movement between such interactions when drawing lewis structures for interactions between lewis acids and bases?

[mohammada1f]

That's correct, it’s generally helpful to show electron movement when drawing Lewis structures for interactions between Lewis acids and bases. In these kinds of reactions, a curved arrow notation is used to indicate the donation of an electron pair from the Lewis base (electron donor) to the Lewis acid (electron acceptor). This notation is essential because it clearly shows the formation of a new bond, especially when explaining the mechanism or illustrating how the final complex is formed.