Lewis vs regular acids

[Ryan M]

Are lewis acids and bases in any way related to the original concept of acids and bases we learned in high school chem? I feel like the way it was explained meant they were sort of related, but the lecture was not very cear. Any help would be appreciated!

[Nicole Ju 3H]

Yes, I believe lewis acids and bases are related to the "regular" acids and bases we learned in high school. There are many different ways of thinking about acids and bases, and I believe "lewis" acids and bases is one way of looking at them. Lewis acids are electron pair acceptors, and lewis bases are electron pair donors. However, Professor Lavelle mentioned that you can also look at lewis acids as proton donors, and lewis bases as proton acceptors (I believe these are referred to Bronsted-Lowry acids and bases). Hope this helps.

[405716590]

I guess we don't really need to know it now but lewis acids are just e- doners and bases are the acceptors. I mean we have a whole unit on acids and bases so I'm sure he'll connect it eventually.

[Aneesha_Nema_3C]

Like the previous responses said, all that's really important to know about Lewis acids and bases is that a species that donates an e- pair is a Lewis base and a species that accepts an e- pair is a Lewis acid. With acids and bases that we are normally taught about, acids are the ones that donate protons and bases are the ones that accept protons, so I guess this is similar in the fact that acids would become more negative and bases would become more positive?

[Ashley Presnell 1C]

They share the same concepts of how acids are species that accept electrons/donate protons whereas bases donate electrons/accept protons. The overall reaction between bases and acids tend to be neutralizing reactions, which seems similar to what happens between lewis bases/acids when they form coordinate covalent bonds.