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To understand why some salts don't dissolve in water, it's important to understand why those salts which are soluble do dissolve in water. Many types of salt are soluble in water, not just table salt (NaCl). Salts that dissolve in water are polar compounds. This means that one of the ends of the atom has a positive charge and the other side has a negative charge. These charges are normally strong enough to form an ionic bond and hold the molecule together. These charges are also what hold the molecules together into a crystalline structure. When the salt is put into water, the positive and negative charges of the water molecule pull the salt molecule apart into it's ions. In the case of NaCl, this would be the Na+ ion and the Cl- ion. The reason some salts don't dissolve in water is that they are not polar compounds. Since they aren't polar, the polar water molecules can't pull them apart into ions.

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16y ago

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