Why aren't hydrocarbons soluble in water?

1 Answer
anor277
Aug 8, 2016

Because the #C-C# and #C-H# bonds that characterize hydrocarbon chains are relatively non-polar, and are not able to participate in efficient hydrogen bonding.

Explanation:

Possibly, the best illustration of this is the alcohol series: methanol; ethanol; propanol; butanol; etc. Methanol and ethanol are infinitely miscible in water; propanol and above have limited aqueous solubilities. As the carbon chain grows longer, non-polar, hydrophobic interactions between the alkyl chains become more important than the hydrogen bonding interactions. It is a fact that ethanol and hexanes are miscible; whereas methanol and hexanes are immiscible. Why?

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