Why are polar substances soluble in water?

1 Answer
anor277
Jan 18, 2018

Well, to a first approximation ALL solutes are soluble in water...

Explanation:

Water is a strongly dipolar substance...i.e. water consists of a molecular dipole that we could represent as #stackrel(delta^+)H-stackrel(delta^-)O-stackrel(delta^+)H#...and this molecular dipole is good at separating the charges of ions....how many ionic solutes are soluble in water?...and also at solvating polar substances such as #HF#, #HCl#, and alcohols etc.

Note that all of this rationalization is AFTER you do the experiment.

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