are there more polar or nonpolar molecules?

Hi!

I was wondering if there are more polar or nonpolar molecules because we learned that water is a good solvent for a lot of molecules but only the polar ones, so i was wondering if there is a minority of nonpolar molecules? or is it roughly 50/50?

THansk

Reply 1

charco

Study Forum Helper

Original post by flyingwhale

For something to be non-polar:

either:

the atoms making up the molecule have the same electronegativity

or

all of the individual dipoles cancel out.

The formed is true for elements, such as oxygen, iodine, nitrogen. And the latter is true for methane and carbon dioxide.
But it is more likely that the individual dipoles do not cancel out.

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