Lewis Acid

[vanessas0123]

Question 6A.13

Draw the Lewis structure or symbol for each of the following species and identify each one as a Lewis acid or Lewis base

Why are Ag+ and BF3 lewis acids? How do you determine this through drawing the lewis structure?

[Ryan Narisma 4G]

Hi vanessas0123! To answer your question, keep in mind the the Lewis definition of acids and bases involve who's giving and who's accepting lone pairs of electrons, which is totally different from the Bronsted definition that involves who's accepting and giving protons (H+). In the Lewis definition, the base it the species that donates the lone pair to form a covalent bond while the acid is the species that accepts the lone pair of electrons. Thus, Silver and BF3 are both lewis acids because they can readily accept a lone pair of electrons, creating a covalent bond. I hope this helps!

[Jonathan Gong 2H]

Ag+ is a Lewis acid because it is an electron pair acceptor. This is because it has a positive charge and electrons will be electrostatically attracted to it. BF3 is a Lewis acid because if you draw its Lewis structure, it has three fluorines bonded about it but no lone pair. Since B only has 6 electrons, it means that it can accept another electron pair. Which fulfills the definition of a Lewis acid.

[Ying Yan 1F]

Lewis acids are election acceptors, therefore since Ag+ and BF₃ have the ability to accept electron, they are lewis acids. (Whereas electron donors are lewis bases.) Hope that helped!

[ranqiao1e]

Because they can accept an extra pair of electrons.

[sophiavmr]

Why can Ag3+ accept another pair of electrons? What valence shell will they go in?