Water is the most widely used solvent to prepare an electrolyte solution due to

Question

Water is the most widely used solvent to prepare an electrolyte solution due to its unique properties. For example, water can readily dissolve various ionic salts at high concentrations. As you can see in the following table, however, cations and anions are very strongly bonded together by electrostatic attractive force in the ionic salt. Explain physical origins of their high solubility in water in two folds.

Lattice Enthalpy (kJ/mol)

Lattice Enthalpy (kJ/mol)

Explanation / Answer

As you know water is polar in nature. So the hydrogen atom of water molecule has partially positive charge and oxygen has partial negative charge, and when a polar molecule like NaCl comes close to h20 , the h20 molecules collides with that NaCl due to dipole dipole interaction and the collision produces energy which is responsible to break the lattice and makes the ionic compounds soluble in h20.

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