Chad J.
asked • 12/12/21What causes the shape of a water molecule to be “bent”?
Why is the model of hybridization used?
What is a dipole?
Why are H2O and NH3 polar molecules while CCl4 and CO2 and nonpolar?
What accounts for the relatively higher than expected boiling points of HF, H2O and NH3?
What force can even cause noble gas atoms and molecules that are nonpolar to be attracted to each other?
Chinenye G. answered • 12/27/21
Chemistry, Biology and Statistics tutor
Electronegativity. Oxygen hogs negative elections more while Hydrogen doesn't mind letting their electrons sharing with their electrons hanging out around Oxygen more. This creates a dipole in the water molecule where part of the water molecule with + charge and the other part around Oxygen more negative this gives H2O it's bent shape.
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Chinenye G.
Also seeing that this is a multi part problem: Dipole:. Just a way of saying that in one molecule, one part is negatively charged while the other side is positively charged ( think like a battery). This is the case for molecules like H2O, NH3. If you were to draw a line splitting the molecule in half you can easily see where one half of the molecule is negatively charged versus positively charged. Shape has a lot to do with this and also where the electrons spend most of their time (electronegativity). The unpaired electrons also help to determine shape. For example NH3 has unpaired electrons sitting on top of Nitrogen. This cause the Hydrogens in this molecule to sort of want to get away or repel themselves away from nitrogen and those unpaired electrons sitting on top creating a dipole within the molecule. This is what is described in VSEPR. or Valence Shell Electron Pair and Repulsion theory. For CCl4 it's tetrahedral shape does not allow for a dipole because no matter how you split this molecule you are not having it to where one side of the molecule is positively charged while the other is negatively charged. C is more positive while all of the Cl or Chlorines are saturated around C trying to stay away (or spread out/disperse) away from each other as much as possible, creating bond angles that do not allow for dipole. CO2. Shape is linear not allowing for a dipole. This is why molecules like CO2 and CCl4 are nonpolar while molecules like NH3 and H2O are polar. Hydrogen bonds and intramolecular forces work to affect boiling point. One major intermolecular force that works with atoms containing F or Florine Hydrogen, Nitrogen especially when they are bonding with Oxygen are Hydrogen bonds. They affect things like water's crystal lattice structure and affect boiling points. Vander Wal forces are weak intermolecular forces that work even in neutral molecules. This is why they can even take into account the noble gases and work on nonpolar molecules. They work on mass more than charges.02/15/22