Why is carbon dioxide a non-polar molecule?

1 Answer
anor277
Jan 8, 2016

Molecular polarity arises from the vector sum of the individual bond-dipoles.

Explanation:

For each #C=O# bond we could draw a vector representing bond polarity #rarr#, where the arrow points to the negative end. Because carbon dioxide is linear, these dipoles sum up to zero, and the carbon dioxide molecule is non-polar.

Related questions
See all questions in Polarity of Bonds
Impact of this question
4701 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License