Acid-base concepts Liebig

The term, acid, was at first used by Boyle in the 17th century. It was based on the following phenomena acids are materials that change the color of certain plant extracts and that dissolve limestone [1]. Glauber, Lavoisier, Davy, Liebig and Arrhenius further developed the acid-base concepts, which were based on the knowledge of the time and which were dominated by information about certain phenomena or substances (see Fig. 7.2). 

The scientific concepts of acids and the complementary compounds, bases , have developed over several centuries with the development of chemistry. Here, it is only necessary to start with the idea associated with Liebig (1838) and Arrhenius (1887), which is still familiar from introductory courses in chemistry. This defines an acid as a compound containing hydrogen that can be replaced by a metal to form a salt. In ionic terms, this amounts to defining an acid as a species that gives hydrogen ions (protons) a base is associated with hydroxyl ions. A typical acid-base reaction can be represented as... 

Dumas, working with the French apothecary Pierre Francois Guillaume Boullay, first proposed that the ethylene group (a two-carbon chain) could serve as the radical base for alcohol and related compounds. The concept of radicals received further support when Liebig and Wohler published their work on oil of bitter almonds. They found a family of compounds— benzoic acid, benzoin, benzaldehyde, benzoyl chloride, benzoyl bromide, benzoyl iodide, benzoyl cyanide, benzoyl... 

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