I am trying to figure out how to tell whether a molecule is polar or nonpolar can somebody please explain!?
129314
Xavier is dead wrong. NH4+ is tetrahedral. Most of his answer applies to NH3, which is trigonal pyramidal, and not the same thing as NH4+.\n\nPolar molecules have a large net electrical dipole moment. In a sense, the dipole moment tells you how close you are to becoming an ionic compound. If there is no net dipole moment, the compound is completely non-polar. On the other extreme, if it's an ionic compound, it's completely polar.\n\nLook carefully at your question. NH4+ is an ion, not a molecule, and the terms "polar" and "non-polar" don't really apply to ions. The reason is that ions must be part of an ionic compound, and the ionic compound would be considered polar by definition. For example, (NH4)Cl is an ionic compound and therefore very polar, but asking whether NH4+ is polar is no different than asking whether Cl- is polar.\n\nA couple of good textbooks for further information and examples would be "Organic Chemistry" by Solomons and "Organic Chemistry" by Peter Vollhardt.
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IF substance contains both hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts:\n  Make the part that is soluble in polar solvents i.e the part having polarity in water and rest in some nonpolar solvent.\n\nIFsubstance is purely ionic represent it as ions in water.
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A polar molecule usually contains polar bonds - bonds which have unequal sharing of electrons between the two atoms involved in bonding. Examples are salts, acids and bases. A non-polar compound usually contains non-polar bonds - bonds which have identical or similar sharing of electrons. Examples are oils and hydrocarbons.\n\nCitric acid is polar.
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Hmmm.. The one affecting the boiling point is the intermolecular force..\nAs you can see, most of the compound here is polar. \n\nTherefore all you have to do is if the compound is consisted only of 2 elements (Group 17), you'll have to calculate the electronegativity difference. The more difference between them, the boiling will increase as well.\n\nIf there is more than 2 atoms in a molecule, you'll have to see the dipole moment magnitude (a.k.a polarity). The higher the magnitude, the higher the boiling point will be.\n\n\npeace\nvixklen
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Polar molecule = a molecule in which the polar bonds are disposed in such a way that it imparts an asymmetry to the molecule as a whole. That is, it gives the whole molecule a Dipole Moment:\n\n        example:  water   H-O-H    has two polar bonds. Since this molecule is Bent, those two polar bonds ADD TOGETHER to produce a molecule with a dipole moment. That is, a polar molecule.\n\n        example:  carbon dioxide  O=C=O  has two polar bonds also.  Since this molecule is Linear, those two polar bonds ADD TOGETHER to cancel each other out, to produce a molecule with NO dipole moment. That is, a nonpolar molecule. \n\n       example:  carbon tetrachloride  CCl4 has four very polar bonds but these bonds are pointing to the corners of a tetrahedron, and form a very symmetric arrangement. The polarity cancels itself out, and the molecule is NONPOLAR. \n\n Electronegativity is the ability of an atom to attract electrons to itself when combined with other atoms. The periodic trend of electronegativity is to increase from left to right (except for the noble gases) and from bottom to top. Thus fluorine is the most electronegative of all atoms. It is often useful to know the top four electronegative atoms. These are, in order, fluorine, oxygen, nitrogen, and chlorine. Hydrogen is a special, but important, case. If the periodic table were totally organized strictly by trends in electronegativity, it would fit between carbon and boron.\n\nElectrons that are shared equally are nonpolar bonds. Shared electrons that are more attracted to one atom than the other are called polar bonds. The more electronegative atom is the negative pole and the less electronegative atom is the positive pole. Extreme examples on polar bonds might actually qualify as ionic bonds. The line between an ionic bond and a covalent bond is not absolute.\n\nTherefore H - F is polar......large difference in electronegativity\nand Br -Br is not polar beacuse it is symetrical so the charges cancel out.
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I'm going to asume that those viatmins aren't polar, which explains why they dissolve in fats, which are also non-polar.  Likes dissolve in likes.  Polarrity has to to with the electrons being drawn to one side of a molecule, causing a slight charge on each side.  Water is polar, and will pull apart other polar molecules, but non-polar vitamins A, D, and E won't disolve in water, but instead in fats and oils.
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Maybe this is of any help?\n\nhttp://www.chemistry.nmsu.edu/studntres/chem435/Lab7/intro.html
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Part A\n\nLondon dispersion forces are also called Van der Walls.  All molecules can have London dispersion forces.  If the molecule can also have dipole- dipole forces or hydrogen bonding in it.  These mask the London disperion forces.  So London dispersion forces are measured in non- polar interacting molecules.\n\nPart B\n\nDiple- dipole forces occur between molecules that have partial charges on their atoms.  Partial positive charges are attracted to partial negative forces.  Like forces repel.\n\nPart C\n\nHydrogen bonding occurs between a hydrogen bond acceptor and a hydroden bond donor.  A hydrogen bond acceptor is an electro negative atom(an atom that wants to have more electrons) with a lone pair of electrons.  A hydrogen bond donor is an electro negative atom with a hydrogen bound to it.
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Generally the polarity of a molecule will trump its surface area and vandewaal's forces.  The molecular mass of the two molecules is really quite close.  So my bet is on C-O-2
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this polar nature depends on electronegativity. \nIn a bond, say C-H, the most EN element gets partial -ve charge and less EN element gets partial +ve charge\nIn C-H, H is less EN and C is more EN. Thus, C gets partial +ve charge and H gets partial -ve charge.\n\nEN of C is 2.550 EN of H is 2.200\nEN of Si is 1.9 EN of Sn is 1.96\n\nIn this group EN of C is high and H is less in C-H thus, C-H is most polar. \n\nAs EN of Si and Sn is less, than H , H gets positive charge but very less +ve charge. but in C-H C is more EN and gets +ve 2.550.\nHope i was clear enough.\nAny doubts you can ask further.
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alkanes are sp3 hybridized and tetrahedral. (there are single bonds between the carbons)\nalkenes are sp2 hybridized and triangular planar. (there is at least one double bond in the carbon chain)\nalkynes are sp hybridized and linear (there is at least one triple bond)\n\nwhether or not they are polar depends on their substituents. if they only have hydrogen atoms attached they will be nonpolar.
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You need to know the number of valence electrons.  Carbon, for example, would want to pair with 4 other atoms.  If there were fewer atoms attached as in CH2O (only 3 attached to the carbon) then one of the atoms must be double bonded.  In this case it is the oxygen that would have the double bond.  You could deduce the approximate shape from the number of bonds.  It would be slightly distorted by the slight negative polarity of the oxygen atom.  Shape of a molecule is a complicated issue that I glossed over.
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ICl2 + should be bent like water since I will have two lone pairs and two Cl's on it.\n\nI3- will be linear\n\nSbCl6- will be octahedral
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The most polar bond will be between the atoms with the greatest difference in electronegativity.\n\nF2 has bond that is not polar since the electrons are equally shared between the two identical atoms. The electronegativity series is As<S<Br<F so the biggest difference is between As and F and the most polar bond is in AsF3.\n\nAs belongs to the same family as N. Thus in AsF3 it forms 3 single bonds and also has 1 lone pair. So the electron-group arrangement is tetrahedral but since there are only 3 identical bonds there will be a net dipole moment.\n\nI already explained why F2 has no dipole moment\n\nBrF3 has trigonal bipyramid electron group arrangment (3 bonds+2 lone pairs) but not corners are occupied by identical atoms (2 have lone pairs of Br) so the dipole moments do not cancel out and the molecule has a net dipole moment\n\nSF4 has again trigonal bipyramid electron group arrangement(4 bonds + 1 lone pair) with one lone pair at one of the corners so it has a net dipole moment\n\nSF6 has octahedral electron group arrangement (6 single bonds)\nand since all corners have F atoms the dipole moments of the bonds cancel each other and the molecule has no net dipole moment.
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Look up the site chemfinder.com.  its a good website if you have not heard of it already.
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D - it's a symmetrical molecule, so even though the individual bonds are polar bonds, the molecule itself has no net dipole
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NaCl IS A MOLECULE CALLED TABLE SALT!\nNH3 is not a molecule because the nitrogen atom is not bonded to another atom/atoms using all of its valence electrons and is therefore not a molecule, it is an ion.