Does ammonia have dipole-dipole interaction?

1 Answer
Dec 21, 2016

Ammonia has a special case of #"dipole-dipole interaction"#......

Explanation:

.........just as water has a special case of #"dipole-dipole interaction"#......which is called #"hydrogen bonding"#.

When hydrogen is covalently bound to a strongly electronegative element, i.e. #O#, or #F#, or #N#, the electronegative element polarizes electron density towards itself. The result? The heteroatom becomes partially negative, and the hydrogen atom becomes partially positive. For each molecule, we could represent this scenario by the diagrams: #""^(delta-)F-H^(delta+)#; #""^(delta+)H-^(delta-)O-H^(delta+)#, and #""^(delta-)N(H^(delta+))_3#. This operates as a potent force of intermolecular attraction when the dipoles align.

All of these are quite small molecules, and yet ammonia has a normal boiling point of #-33.3# #""^@C#, hydrogen fluoride of #19.5# #""^@C#, and water, which has the most extensive intermolecular hydrogen bonding network has an even higher boiling point of....?

The intermolecular hydrogen bonding, which of course is a special case of dipole-dipole interaction, operates very strongly in these 3 small molecules, and is responsible for their elevated boiling points, with respect to the lower group hydrides. Compare the reduced normal points of phosphine, hydrogen sulfide, and hydrogen chloride, for all of which you will have to hunt.