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  4. Among the following, which is the strongest Lewis acid?

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Q. Among the following, which is the strongest Lewis acid?

NTA AbhyasNTA Abhyas 2022

Solution:

The strengths of boron halides as Lewis acids are in the order $\text{BI}_{3} > \text{BBr}_{3} > \text{BCl}_{3} > \text{BF}_{3}$ . This order is the opposite of what is expected on steric grounds as well as from considerations of electronegatively. It can be explained in terms of boron-halogen-bonding.
Here, acidic nature $ \propto \frac{1}{e x t e n t \, o f \, b a c k b o n d i n g}$