What is polarity and difference between the polar and a non polar solvent and why polar dissolve polar and vice versa?
What is polarity and difference between the polar and a non polar solvent and why polar dissolve polar and vice versa?
Polarity refers to the physical properties of compounds such as boiling point, melting points and their solubilities. These bond polarities mainly arise from the bonds that act between molecules and atoms with various electronegativities.
- 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”.
Polar and polar go together is because there is a strong attraction between them. That is because of the molecules’ dipoles (which you can read about elsewhere). And this makes it easy for the two substances to collect together to form a uniform and homogeneous substance (mixture/solution). Non-polar molecules have a hard time dissolving in polar solvents because they have to compete with the strong attraction between the all polar molecules. They simply do not have any attraction to the polar molecules which makes dissolving very difficult.
But the reason why non-polar molecules can dissolve in non-polar substances, is because there is no need to compete with the attraction between any of the molecules because there essentially isn’t any. And the reason why polar solutes typically do not dissolve in non-polar solvents is because there is nothing to keep the polar and non-polar molecules near each other since there is no attraction forces.
- 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”.
Polar and polar go together is because there is a strong attraction between them. That is because of the molecules’ dipoles (which you can read about elsewhere). And this makes it easy for the two substances to collect together to form a uniform and homogeneous substance (mixture/solution). Non-polar molecules have a hard time dissolving in polar solvents because they have to compete with the strong attraction between the all polar molecules. They simply do not have any attraction to the polar molecules which makes dissolving very difficult.
But the reason why non-polar molecules can dissolve in non-polar substances, is because there is no need to compete with the attraction between any of the molecules because there essentially isn’t any. And the reason why polar solutes typically do not dissolve in non-polar solvents is because there is nothing to keep the polar and non-polar molecules near each other since there is no attraction forces.
