Return to the Acid Base menu In 1923, within several months of
each other, Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted (Denmark) and Thomas
Martin Lowry (England) published essentially the same theory
about how acids and bases behave. Since they came to their
conclusions independently of each other, both names have been
used for the theory name. Since the ChemTeam does not (yet) have
access to information about how each came to their conclusions,
we will move right into a description of the theory. However,
Brønsted does focus on the concept of base in his article, so it
seems possible that the problems with bases, especially ammonia,
in Arrhenius' theory was where he found his inspiration. II. The
Acid Base Theory Using the words of Brønsted: ". . . acids and
bases are substances that are capable of splitting off or taking
up hydrogen ions, respectively." Or an acid-base reaction
consists of the transfer of a proton from an acid to a base.
KEEP THIS THOUGHT IN MIND!! Here is a more recent way to say the
same thing: Remember: