A COMMENTED TRANSLATION OF ACIDS AND BASES BY GILBERT NEWTON LEWIS

Abstract

Gilbert Newton Lewis was a distinguished scientist in 20th century History of Chemistry. His work remains relevant for physical chemistry, organic chemistry and coordination chemistry nowadays. Lewis is well known by his propose for chemical bond, based on electron sharing. In 1923 he published two theoretical explanations for acids and bases: the former collaborating with Bronsted and Lowry and the later in his book Valence and the Structure of Atoms and Molecules (1923). In this book, the role of electron pairs in acid base reactions was highlighted decentering explanations from detachment/transfer of hydrogen ion. As a result, more substances could be classified as acids and bases. Also, in the context of organic and coordination chemistry new interpretations for reaction mechanisms showed up. The paper translated here, Acids and Bases (1938), makes a strong empirical description of acids and bases behavior. Lewis designed phenomenological criteria as speed of neutralization reactions, strength of the species acid-base titrations, and its applications as catalysts. In this manuscript, we carried out a commented translation of Lewis Acids and Bases published in 1938, considering it an inspiring source for research and educational applications for Portuguese speaking countries.