The Ionization Principle

Chemical moieties are known to attract to each other and under appropriate conditions, disassociate. When this process is driven by the electrical charges on the components of the moiety, this phenomenon is known as ionization. The physicochemical properties of dissociated species differ significantly from the 

For hundreds of years, substances that behaved like vinegar have been classified as acids, while those that have properties like the ash from a wood fire have been referred to as alkalies or bases. The name acid comes from the Latin acidus, which means sour, and refers to the sharp odor and sour taste of many acids. Vinegar tastes sour because it is a dilute solution of acetic acid in water lemon juice is sour because it contains citric acid milk turns sour when it is spoilt because of the formation of lactic acid and the sour odor of rotten meat can be attributed to carboxylic acids, such as butyric acid formed when fat spoils. 

Arrhenius in 1887 was the first person to give a definition of an acid and a base. According to him, an acid is one that gives rise to excess of in aqueous solution, whereas a base gives rise to excess of OH in solution. This was modified by Bronsted-Lowry in 1923 such that a proton donor was defined as an acid and a proton acceptor as a base. They also introduced the familiar concept of the conjugate acid-base pair. The final refinement to the acid-base theory was completed by Lewis in 1923, who extended the concept that acid is an acceptor of electron pairs while base is a donor of electron pairs. 

According to this theory, all acid-base reactions involve the transfer of an ion, or a proton. Water reacts with itself, for example, by transferring an ion from one 

According to this theory, an acid is a proton donor and a base is a proton acceptor. Acids are often divided into categories, such as strong and weak. One measure of the strength of an acid is the acid-dissociation equilibrium constant, Ka, of the acid. 

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