Acid-base chemistry steric effects

One goal of this chapter was to develop tools for comparing the thermodynamics of one reaction to another, where acid-base chemistry was our setting. In that regard, this chapter allowed us to analyze again many of the chemical effects that chemists routinely call upon to explain trends—namely, induction, resonance, aromaticity, solvation, hybridization, polarizability, and electrostatics. Although none of these effects were new, this chapter showed for the first time how their interplay affects the thermodynamics of reactions. Really, the only common effect that was not focused upon in this chapter is that of sterics, because a proton is so small that steric effects are minimal. 

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