Question

Why are ionic compounds are soluble in water but insoluble in kerosene?

Answer 1

Ionic compounds:-

• Ionic compounds are compounds that are held together by oppositely charged ions and are held together by strong electrostatic force.
• An example of such a compound is Sodium chloride$\left(\mathrm{NaCl}\right)$.
• Ionic compounds are generally soluble in highly polar solvents.
• Water is a polar covalent solvent, and it opposes the electrostatic force between the ionic compounds.
• This results in the dissociation of the ionic compound into its constituent anion and cation.
• In this case, when the Sodium chloride dissociates in water and forms ${\mathrm{Na}}^{+}\mathrm{and}{\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}$ions: $\underset{\mathrm{Sodium}\mathrm{chloride}}{\mathrm{NaCl}}\rightleftharpoons \underset{\mathrm{Sodium}\mathrm{ion}}{{\mathrm{Na}}^{+}}+\underset{\mathrm{Chloride}\mathrm{ion}}{{\mathrm{Cl}}^{-}}$
• On the other hand, Kerosene is a nonpolar solvent and only dissolves non-polar compounds only.
• Since ionic compounds are not non-polar, hence they do not get dissociated in kerosene.
• In other words we can say that Ionic compounds are soluble in Water, but not in kerosene.