Polar covalent molecules may dissolve in polar solvents. Not all polar covalent molecules will be soluble in polar solvents.Non-polar covalent molecules will form intermolecular forces with the molecules of non-polar solvents. The energy released may be enough to break the intermolecular forces between the non-polar covalent molecules so non-polar covalent molecules tend to be soluble in non-polar solvents.Non-polar simple covalent molecules tend to be insoluble in polar solvents. This is because the intermolecular forces in the polar solvents are too strong to be broken by the energy released by their interaction with the non-polar molecules.Some organic molecules have hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts. Short-chain alcohols are miscible with water because the Hydroxyl (-OH) group can form hydrogen bonds with the water molecules. As the chain length increases, the alcohols become less miscible as the London forces become more significant and the hydrogen bonding becomes less significant.
Solubility of Simple Molecules
Read the text
Read the text and highlight anything you think is important. When you go on, the text is hidden and you answer from memory.
Specification: OCR Chemistry A (H032), AS-level, 2.2.2 Bonding and structure. Topic: Shapes and Intermolecular Forces.
Key terms in this lesson
- London forces
- Weak intermolecular forces caused by an instantaneous dipole inducing a dipole in a neighbouring molecule.
- Hydrogen bond
- A strong permanent dipole-dipole interaction between a hydrogen atom bonded to N, O or F and a lone pair on an electronegative N, O or F atom of another molecule.
- Group
- A vertical column of the periodic table, containing elements with the same number of outer-shell electrons.
More in Shapes and Intermolecular Forces
- More examples.
- Electronegativity
- Bond Polarity
- Polar Solvents and Solubility
- Induced Dipole-Dipole Interactions (London Forces)
- Permanent dipole-dipole interactions
- Hydrogen Bonds
- Boiling Points of Hydrides and Intermolecular forces
All 13 lessons in Shapes and Intermolecular Forces · All OCR AS-level Chemistry topics