lewis vs bronsted

[Agustina Santa Cruz 2F]

What is the difference between a lewis acid/base and a bronsted acid/base?

[Sahiti Annadata 3D]

Lewis acids and bases describe the donation of an electron pair, while bronsted acids and base describe the transfer of protons.

[Ryan Hoang 1D]

Agustina is correct!
Lewis bases are those that donate the electrons, while lewis acids acccept. Bronsted bases accept a proton while the acids supply a proton.

[805593945]

Lewis acid accept lone pairs while lewis base donate lone pairs.
Bronsted acid gives proton, while bronsted base accepts proton.

[Hasan Mirza 3F]

Lewis acids and bases focus on the movement of electrons, while bronsted looks at the movement of protons.

[Andrew Yoon 3L]

Lewis acids and bases focus on the transfer of lone pairs of electrons. Bronstead acids and bases focus on the transfer protons.

[Ellison Gonzales 1H]

This is an example/explanation in the text book that I don’t fully understand and hoping to get some help on it :)
“The C atom of CO2, the Lewis acid, accepts an electron pair from the O of a water moleculethe Lewis base, and a proton migrates from an H2O oxygen atom to a CO2 oxygen atom. The product, an H2CO3 molecule, is a Bronsted acid.”
I don’t understand how a proton is transferred to CO2, if it is an acid since Bronsted Bases are typically the proton acceptors. I know that it was originally docked as a Lewis acid because it accepted the e- pair, but the second part throws me off.

[Manseej Khatri 2B]

Hi. The difference, I believe, is on what you focus on. If we are focusing on protons, the Bronsted definition is used (acid being the proton donor, base being proton acceptor) where as if we focus on electrons the Lewis definition is used. The Lewis definition tends to be more fundamental as all acids can be seen as lone pair acceptors and not all acids have a hydrogen that can be made an H+ (take for example BCl3).

[Elizabeth Kaplan 3I]

They are essentially describing the same thing, just emphasizing 2 different factors! Lewis acids/bases focus on electrons, while Bronsted acids/bases focus on protons. Lewis acids accept electrons, while Lewis bases donate electrons. Bronsted acids donate protons, while Bronsted bases accept protons.

[jessicasilverstein1F]

They are different definitions based on proton donating, accepting or electron donating, accepting.
Lewis acid accept electrons while lewis base donate electrons.
Bronsted acid gives proton, while bronsted base accepts protons.

[Lorraine Medina 3E]

Hi! Lewis acids/bases and Bronsted acids/bases are basically saying the same thing but just have two different focuses. Bronsted acids/bases focus on protons, where the acids donate protons and the bases accept protons. Lewis acids/bases however focus on electrons, where the acids accept electrons and the bases donate electrons. Hope this helps!