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Thomas Martin Lowry

English chemist

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Thomas Martin Lowry was an English chemist who, independently and simultaneously with Danish chemist Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted in 1923, introduced a widely applicable acid-base concept. This theory, known as the Brønsted-Lowry theory, defines an acid as a compound that can transfer a proton (H⁺) and a base as a compound that accepts a proton. According to this scheme, a substance can only act as an acid in the presence of a base, and vice versa. When an acid loses a proton, it forms its conjugate base, and when a base gains a proton, it forms its conjugate acid. This theory expanded the definition of acids and bases to include neutral molecules, as well as charged ions.12

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