Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
Chimica nella Scuola

Storia e fondamenti della Chimica per la didattica

Vol. 1 No. 1 (2024): Chimica nella Scuola n. 1 2024

I contributi di J. N. Brønsted e di T. M. Lowry alla definizione di acidi e basi

Submitted
10 April 2024
Published
10-04-2024

Abstract

The two physical chemists Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted (1879-1947) and Thomas Martin Lowry (1874-1936)1are usually jointly credited with the definition of acids and bases in terms of acceptors and donors of H+ ions. Each on his behalf, in a completely independent manner, in the same year, 1923, they in fact published two articles from which the aforementioned definition originates. We aim to analyze the contents of these articles to illustrate the different paths taken by the two scientists to arrive at this result.

References

  1. J. N. Brønsted, Recl. Trav. Chim. Pays-Bas, 1923, 42, 718.
  2. T. M. Lowry, J. Soc. Chem. Ind., 1923, 42, 43.
  3. C. Coulston Gillispie et al., Dictionary of scientific biography, Scribner’s Sons, New York 1970, Vol. 2, 498-499.
  4. J. N. Brønsted, V. K. la Mer, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1924, 46, 555.
  5. P. Pfeiffer, Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges., 1907, 40, 4036.
  6. L. Michaelis, Die Wasserstoffionenkonzentration, Verlag von Julius Springer, Berlin, 1922, p. 14.
  7. W. B. Jensen, Educación Química, 2016, 27, 175.
  8. L. Pauling, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1932, 54, 3570.
  9. R. P. Bell, The Proton in Chemistry, Cornell University, New York, 1973, p. 4.