What determines whether a compound will be more soluble in hexane or in H2O?

Answer 1

Calcium Carbonate Some compounds are amphipathic. Water is a polar solvent and hexane is a nonpolar solvent. For a compound to dissolve in both, it would need to posses some nonpolar properties and some polar properties.

Answer 2

Improved Answer

When it comes to miscability, just remember this simple rule "Like dissolves like". In other words, the closer (chemically) two things are to each other, the more likely they are to be freely soluble in each other. Water and ethanol an 'OH' group in common. Ethanol and hexane have CH2's and CH3's in common. However water and hexanes don't have anything in common. Therefore, they are too different from each other and are not miscible...

Old (not so good) Answer

Hexane is not soluble in water because Hexane is a Nonpolar solvent while water is Polar solvent.

Like dissolves like.

Hexane also does not Conduct electricity.

Answer 3

Ethanol is soluble in water because the -OH group of ethanol (CH3CH2OH) can form hydrogen bonds with water. Hydrogen bonding occurs when a very electronegative molecule like O, N, F are bonded to molecules like hydrogen.

For this example, I'll talk about groups that have -NH, -SH, -OH. These electronegative atoms pull the electron cloud away from hydrogen and becomes slightly more negative and hydrogen slightly more positive. Now, this means other identical molecules that have the same groups are attracted to each other: a -OH group attracted to another -OH group because of their mini "magnetic poles." Since there is hydrogen bonding, other water molecules bind to it and undergo solvolysis, which is a definition of dissolving one ethanol molecule in a large crowd of water molecules. Ethanol is effectively dissolved because water molecules are binding to it through hydrogen bonding.

Hexane, however, is composed of 8 hydrocarbon molecules. It does not exhibit hydrogen bonding. Even though ethanol has two carbon molecules, it does not make a big difference of solubility in hexane unless its carbon chain increases past eight. Therefore, ethanol will more likely bind to its own OH group and will not be dissolved.

Answer 4

It does not dissolve in water as it is non-polar. Remember non polar solvents dissolve non polar solvents and polar solvents dissolve polar solvents.

Since Cyclohexane is non polar and water is polar they will not dissolve each other, instead two inseparable layers of liquids are formed.

Answer 5

The polarity of the compound determines its solubility in different solvents. Nonpolar compounds are more soluble in nonpolar solvents like hexane, while polar compounds are more soluble in polar solvents like water. Additionally, the intermolecular forces within the compound and the solvent also play a role in determining solubility.

Answer 6

No, Hexane does not disolve in water. Water is a polar molecule while hexane is a non polar molecule. Like dissolves like.

Answer 7

Hexane is a non-polar hydrocarbon and does not dissolve in the polar solvent water. Hexane is also of a lower density than water.

Answer 8

The polarity of the compound determines whether it will be more soluble in hexane or in water.

Answer 9

Pentane is soluble in hexane because the solute and solvent molecules are about the same size and interact with one another.