Posted by shennay on Saturday, March 8, 2008 at 6:35am.
A polar molecule is any molecule that tends to have more negative charges (electrons) on one end and more positive charges (protons in nuclei) in the other, even though the total number of protons and electrons are the same.
The ethanol molecule has a polarity of 25.7 Debyes. That number is called the dipole moment and is a measure of the separation of positive and negative charges in the molecule. The polarity of ethanol is caused by the lack of symmetry resultng from having an OH group stuck at one end of a C=C "backbone" and an H atom at the
other.
I will attempt to draw the molecule
..H.H
..| |
H-C=C-OH
..| |
..H H
One Debye of dipople moment equals 3.33564 × 10^−30 coulomb-meter
The molecule didn't turn out the way I wanted. Here is another attempt
...H..H
...|..|
H-C=C-OH
...|..|
...H..H
The vertical lines | are supposed to connect each C atom with one H atom above and one below
I have been informed by DrBob222 that the structure of ethanol is actually
CH3CH2OH, rather than what I wrote. Nevertheless, it is true that an asymmetrical structure is the source of the diple moment.
Chemistry is not my field of expertise; I apologize for the error
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