O ensino de aspectos históricos e filosóficos da Química e as teorias ácido-base do século XX

Abstract

In this paper, an overview about philosophy of science, the concept of "theory" and some characteristics of a”good”theory (1- ordination and explanation of the facts, 2- proposal of problems, and 3- simplicity and funcionality) are initialy introduced. Following, some historical landmarks of acidity and basicity and a summary of the main acid-base theories of the XX century (Arrhenius, solvent systems, protonic, electronic, Lux, Usanovich and ionotropic) are presented. Historical and conceptual relations between these theo- ries are discussed and the three characteristics of a "good" theory are applied. The results showed that the protonic and eletronic theories are the "best". Some discussion of the implications to chemical education are presented too.