Lewis Acid Lone Pairs

[Jada Brown 2H]

I understand that lewis acids and bases involve the donation and accepting of lone pairs but I still don't fully understand what this actually means? How do they donate or accept lone pairs? What does this look like?

[KeyaV1C]

If it helps you can also think of it in terms of protons or hydrogen atoms. For example if you have HCl in gas phase, it is a relatively stable molecule, but if you look at HCl in its aqueous phase, it loses the H atom and forms a Cl- ion. HCl (aq) + H2O(liquid) -> Cl-(aq) + H3O+(aq). HCl is an acid because it loses the proton/gains an electron pair. Hope that makes sense!

[Mashkinadze_1D]

The donation and acception of lone pairs is essentially the movement of hydrogen. When hydrogen is moved across, the lewis acid gives off a proton and is therefore accepting a lone pair as it becomes negative. The lewis base that has now recieved a H+ is going to give off a lone pair as it becomes positive. Charges show the trends with the amount of lone pairs. Hope this helps!