Are the attractions water molecules have for each other stronger or weaker than the attractions between molecules of carbon dioxide? Thank you!

1 Answer
Feb 28, 2018

H_2O molecules have stronger intermolecular forces than CO_2 molecules, so the attractions between carbon dioxide molecules are weaker.

Explanation:

While H_2O molecules are polar, CO_2 molecules are not. This means that H_2O molecules can take part in dipole-dipole interactions between molecules, while the strongest intermolecular forces CO_2 molecules can take part in are Van der Waals forces, or London Dispersion Forces.

Van der Waals forces, which arise from the electrostatic attraction between temporary dipoles formed by electrons occupying certain positions in atoms, are much weaker compared to dipole-dipole forces, which are the result of electrostatic attractions between the permanently positive and negative ends (dipoles) of polar molecules.