Solid Bronsted acid-Lewis base catalysis

In general terms, a solid acid may be understood to be a solid on which the color of a basic indicator changes or a solid on which a base is chemically adsorbed. More strictly, following both the Bronsted and Lewis definitions, a solid acid shows a tendency to donate a proton or to accept an electron pair, whereas a solid base tends to accept a proton or to donate an electron pair. These definitions are adequate for an understanding of the acid-base phenomena shown by various solids, and are convenient for a clear description of solid acid and base catalysis. 

The solid/gas interface was traditionally studied with respect to adsorption and catalysis. Here the assertion that the Bronsted definition of acidity is a particular case of the Lewis definition is neither obvious nor even helpful. It suffices to say that many reactions in heterogeneous catalysis require specifically the presence of either Bronsted or Lewis acidic (or basic) sites, and the reaction mechanisms depend on the nature of the surface site. A long-term goal of surface studies for the characterization of solid catalysts was to distinguish and quantify the number of Bronsted or Lewis sites with potential catalytic activity for gas-phase reactants. For that reason, when discussing the acid-base behavior of solid surfaces, it is no longer possible, nor desirable, to adopt the viewpoint that subsumes Bronsted acid-base properties in the more general Lewis definition. 

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