The reaction of a Lewis acid and a Lewis base will produce a coordinate covalent bond.

A coordinate covalent bond is just a type of covalent bond in which one reactant gives it electron pair to another reactant. In this case the lewis base donates its electrons to the lewis acid. When they do react this way the resulting product is called an addition compound, or more commonly an adduct. 2.) Scientifically speaking, a strong acid would be one that completely transfers its protons (H+ atoms) to water leaving no undissociated molecules in solution. A weak acid would be one that only partly dissociates in aqueous solution and exists in the solution as a mix of acid molecules and component ions. A substance with negligible acidity is one that contains hydrogen but does not demonstrate any acidic behavior in water (that is, the hydrogen does not dissociate or detach from the molecule).

In each case, the same bond gets broken - the bond between the hydrogen and oxygen in an -OH group. Writing the rest of the molecule as "X":

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So . . . if the same bond is being broken in each case, why do these three compounds have such widely different acid strengths?

Differences in acid strengths between carboxylic acids, phenols and alcohols The factors to consider Two of the factors which influence the ionisation of an acid are:

the strength of the bond being broken, the stability of the ions being formed.

In these cases, you seem to be breaking the same oxygen-hydrogen bond each time, and so you might expect the strengths to be similar. Note: You've got to be a bit careful about this. The bonds won't be identically strong, because what's around them in the molecule isn't the same in each case.

The most important factor in determining the relative acid strengths of these molecules is the nature of the ions formed. You always get a hydroxonium ion - so that's constant - but the nature of the anion (the negative ion) varies markedly from case to case.