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Acids, Bases, and the Nature of the Hydrogen Ion

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Book cover The Proton in Chemistry

Abstract

The exact verbal definition of qualitative concepts is more often the province of philosophy than of physical science. However, the various definitions suggested for acids and bases have been closely linked with the development of physical chemistry and have often served to stimulate experimental work and to further our understanding of chemical processes, and we shall therefore devote some time to this subject. The definitions used in the remainder of this book will be those proposed by Brönstedl in 1923, namely, An acid is a species having a tendency to lose a proton, and a base is a species having a tendency to add on a proton. This can be represented schematically by A ⇌ B + H+, where A and B are termed a conjugate (or corresponding) acid-base pair.2 Before examining the consequences of this definition and its relation to more recent concepts we shall consider briefly the previous history of the terms ‘acid’ and ‘base’.

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    R. P. Bell (Professor of Chemistry)

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Bell, R.P. (1973). Acids, Bases, and the Nature of the Hydrogen Ion. In: The Proton in Chemistry. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1592-7_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4757-1592-7_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-1594-1

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