I\'m confused, I thought that polarity had to do with difference in the energy b

Question

I'm confused, I thought that polarity had to do with difference in the energy being shared in the molecule, so if there were oxygens for example it would make the molecule more polar. I also thought that the more carbons you have, the more non polar it is. I am confused because the melting point of benzyl alcohol is so low, even though it has an oxygen and less carbons than biophenol.i know high melting point correlates with polarity, but this situation has be confused. Please explain this to me, what is the order of polarity of these molecules and why. benz accondu there for M P more

Explanation / Answer

Though the polarity of biphenyl is less, it is rigid aromatic molecule and it will have tight packing in solid state, and it will have pi-pi interaction between pi cloud. These interaction and tight packing results in higher melting point compare to benzyl alcohol. Biphenyl has higher molecular weight compare to benzyl alcohol which increases the intermolecular force. These factor result in higher melting point compare to benzyl alcohol.

Benzyl alcohol is flexible aromatic molecule it is less tightly packed compare to biphenyl, therefore it has less melting point compare to biphenyl.

In the case of benzoic acid apart from polarity it has good hydrogen bonding interaction which also one of the factor for higher melting point

Therefore order of polarity alone is not only the deciding factor for melting point behaviour.

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