Which of the following explains why water is a good solvent for polar and ionic compounds?

Biology

1 answer:

Anni [7]3 years ago

6 0

Hi there!

Electronegativity is the concept of how likely an atom is to attract the shared molecules in one of these bonds to itself. We know the molecule water is made up of two hydrogens and one oxygen. The electronegativity of hydrogen is 2.2, and oxygen 3.4. An ionic bond needs at least a difference in electronegativity of 1.6. As the difference is less than that, we can say that water is a covalent molecule. This then wipes out choice B, because it is not ionic, and C, as we have seen it is actually covalent.

Now, we can see the difference in electronegativity between oxygen and hydrogen is still 1.2. This means that while it is not at the point for there to be an ionic bond, there is still a difference in attraction, where the electrons will tend to favor the oxygen more and 'hang around it' more. As electrons are negatively charged, this means that the oxygen will gain a slightly negative charge. This then makes the molecule polar, because it now has a charge within the molecule. This means we have our answer, choice D.

In terms of hydrophobic molecules - they tend to be ones without a charge. (If you're interested in this kind of stuff, I'd search hydrophobic up, and possibly also look into hydrogen bonds).

Hope this helps! Feel free to ask me any other questions you have about this specific problem.

You might be interested in

Identify the macromolecule in the figure that stores genetic information in molecules like dna and rna

jasenka [17]

Answer:

if i'm not mistaken it's the nucleic acid.

8 0

2 years ago

Which metabolic pathway is correctly paired with an example? catabolism – digestion and muscle growth anabolism – photosynthesis

NemiM [27]

Anabolism - photosynthesis and protein synthesis

4 0

3 years ago

Read 2 more answers

Mendel crossed peas having round seeds and yellow cotyledons (seed leaves) with peas having wrinkled seeds and green cotyledons.

Kruka [31]

Answer:

Let:

Y = Yellow R = Round

y = green r = Wrinkled

If you look at the F1 generation, all the plants are round and yellow, so these are the dominant traits and each offspring is heterozygous for both traits. The cross for the F2 generation would then be:

YyRr x YyRr

In a Punnett it would look like the attached picture.

For the forked-line diagram, first you will need to know the gentypes and ratio of each trait in a monohybrid cross. Select one trait, and then branch each gentype to the next trait, linking it with each possible genotype combination of the monohybrid cross.

Attached is a picture of the Forked Branch diagram for this cross.