Question

When nonpolar solutes are placed in water, the hydrogen bonding network of water is disrupted, and there are fewer ways for water to hydrogen-bond with itself. Is this an increase or decrease in entropy?

Answer 1

Answer:  increase in entropy

Explanation:

Entropy is the measure of randomness or disorder of a system. If a system moves from  an ordered arrangement to a disordered arrangement, the entropy is said to decrease and vice versa.

$\Delta S$ is positive when randomness increases and $\Delta S$ is negative when randomness decreases.

When the non polar solutes are placed in water, the hydrogen bonding network of water is disrupted, and there are fewer ways for water to hydrogen-bond with itself. That means the water molecules are more randomly arranged and thus have more entropy and thus $\Delta S$ is positive.