Question

What is polar solvent and what is non polar solvent?

Answer 1

• Polar solvents have large dipole moments (aka “partial charges”); they contain bonds between atoms with very different electronegativities, such as oxygen and hydrogen.
• Non polar solvents contain bonds between atoms with similar electronegativities, such as carbon and hydrogen (think hydrocarbons, such as gasoline). Bonds between atoms with similar electronegativities will lack partial charges; it’s this absence of charge which makes these molecules “non-polar”.