bronsted vs. lewis acid

[Lucy Wang 2J]

I was wondering if someone could explain the difference between a bronsted and a lewis acid. What's the difference between them? Is it possible for an acid to be both a bronsted and lewis acid?

[Brian_Wu_3B]

I think this post is very useful: viewtopic.php?t=38472

[George Cazares 1E]

A Lewis acid is any electron pair acceptor, and a Bronsted acid is any proton donor. I believe that Bronsted acids can be Lewis acids, but not all Lewis acids can be Bronsted acids.

[Lilly Catarozoli 1B]

A Lewis acid accepts electron pairs (ex. BF3) while a Bronsted acid donates a proton (ex. HCl).

[Alison Perkins 2B]

Bronsted is concerned with proton presence/movement, and Lewis is concerned with electron presence/movement. I have found it helpful to remember that every Bronsted Base is a Lewis Base and every Bronsted Acid is a Lewis Acid, but these trends DONT work in reverse.

[Will Skinner]

All acids are both Brønsted and Lewis acids. They are not actually separate things. They are two different ways to define an acid. Brønsted defines acids as proton donors, while Lewis defines acids as lone e- lone pair acceptors.

[Sedge Greenlee]

As Will Skinner said, they are essentially the same thing with different viewpoints. The Lewis model focuses on the movement of the electrons while the Bronsted model focuses on the proton. So a lewis acid looks at how electrons are accepted from an H+ while a Bronsted model looks at how a proton is gained from the H+

[David Y]

Bronsted acid- proton donor
Lewis acid- electron pair acceptor

[DavidTabib 3H]

A Lewis acid accepts electron pairs, but a Bronsted acid donates a proton

[Jack_Pearce_2H]

A lewis acid is an electron pair acceptor and a bronsted acid is a proton donator. Not super sure on a rule about if the terms can be interchanged but it doesn't help to check based on the question.

[MichaelRaad_1F]

A Bronsted Acid is a proton donor, it donated an H+ while a lewis acid accepts an electron pair. You can think of H+ being a lewis acid because it cannot donate an electron pair and must instead accept an electron pair because it has no electrons to donate.