Iodine is not soluble in water. Name two solvents that more iodine be dissolved?

1 Answer
Feb 23, 2018

Ethanol #(C_2H_5OH)# and hexane #(C_6H_12)#

Explanation:

Iodine is soluble in both ethanol and hexane. Iodine does not dissolve in water because water is an extremely polar molecule, while iodine exists in the diatomic form of #I_2#, and is therefore non-polar, and will not dissolve in water.

Ethanol has some polarity in its #OH# bond, but the #C_2H_4# bond is non-polar, and therefore iodine has slight solubility in ethanol.

Hexane has a chemical formula of #C_6H_12#. It is a non-polar molecule because the carbon-hydrogen bond has a small electronegativity difference of around #0.4#. Since like dissolves like, iodine will be therefore soluble in hexane.

Sources:

https://www.enotes.com/homework-help/do-iodine-dissolve-ethanol-557516

http://preparatorychemistry.com/15Bishop.pdf