Summary of Chemistry Textbook: Section 2.

5 Intermolecular Forces
- When water boils not breaking into oxygen and hydrogen atoms; rather separating from
each other to form gaseous water or steam
- Addition of heat energy to a molecular substance initially separates the molecules from each
other and changes their state
- Many cases requires very little added energy to occur
- Ice melts at 0 degrees and wax melts at 55 degrees
- Bonds being broken not covalent bonds, they are intermolecular forces
- Strength of intermolecular forces in a substance determines melting and boiling
temperatures
- Strength of intermolecular forces determined by strength of electrostatic attraction, in turn,
dependent on whether molecules are polar or non-polar, big or small
Van der Waals forces (London or dispersion forces)
- Molecules such as water and hydrogen chloride have permanent dipole, many other
substances whose molecules are non-polar
- Maybe because they are elements, noble gases or have polar covalent bonds that cancel out
to produce a non-polar molecule
- Hydrocarbons major part of this group also
- Any molecule made of only hydrogen and carbon will be non-polar
- Non-polar molecules attracted by some electrostatic force many are liquids or solids at room
temperature
- If no force all would be gases to temperatures well below 0 degrees
- Melting temperatures of non-polar solids such as waxes and the fact that most non-polar
substances are liquids or gases at room temperature bonding between molecules is weak
- Appreciate the source of the weak attractive forces, consider orientation of all electrons,
both bonding and non-bonding, at a particular instant rather than over a period of time
- Simplest molecule, hydrogen, consider orientation of the two bonding electrons
- While it is possible that these fast-moving electrons will be symmetrically oriented around
the two hydrogen nuclei, far more likely for an instant of time, found at one side of the
molecule instantaneous dipole
- Once temporary dipole generated influence orientation of electrons within the molecules
close to it
- Electrons in neighbouring molecules repelled by negative end of the temporary dipole,
creating a new induced dipole
- Electrons attain different orientation, new set of interacting dipoles will be generated
- Orientation in 3D space of the electrons of a specific molecule will average out to produce
no permanent dipole
- Weak interactions generated by billions of temporary dipoles, resulted in a weak overall
attractive force Van der Waals forces
- Exist in all molecules, irrespective of any other intermolecular forces that may also be
present
- Larger molecule greater the number of electrons the more pronounced van der waals
forces
- Melting and boiling points, directly related to the strength of the bonds acting between
particles, stronger the forces of attraction, higher the boiling point
- As the number of electrons present within the molecule increases, the number and
magnitude of instantaneous dipoles increases and hence so do the melting and boiling
points of the elements
- Van der waals forces present between molecules, if, molecules significantly polarised
molecule is relatively small, effects of these van der waals forces may be relatively slight
Permanent dipole attraction (dipole-dipole attraction)
- Polar molecules have a permanent dipole
- One end of the molecule is always positive in relation to the other end of the molecule
- Positive part and negative part can attract other polar molecules by electrostatic attraction
- Strength of attraction depends on the size of the dipole, determined by the difference in the
electronegativities of the atoms in the molecule
- Based on polarities alone, would be reasonable to expect the boiling point of HCl to be
higher than those of HBr
- Difference in number of electrons of HCl and HBr is significant
- Difference in the strength of van der Waals forces is sufficiently large to overcome the
greater strength of the HCl dipole, HBr has a higher boiling point than HCl
- HF molecule has a higher boiling point than any of the other hydrogen halides
Hydrogen bonding: a special case of permanent dipole attraction
- Most electronegative elements found in the top right-hand corner of the periodic table:
fluorine (4.0), oxygen (3.5) and nitrogen (3.0)
- Combination of any of these three elements with hydrogen produces a particularly strong
dipole and results in the formation of highly polar molecules such as water, ammonia and
hydrogen fluoride
- Hydrogen bonding = given to intermolecular forces that occur between molecules that
contain H-F, H-O and H-N bonds
- Hydrogen bonding, the positive (H) end of a dipole is strongly attracted to the negative (F, O
or N) end of the dipole of another molecule
- Explain some of the unusual properties of water, relatively high melting and boiling points
and its low density when frozen
- Strong intermolecular forces between water molecules that result in its high surface tension
- Dipole-dipole bond between hydrogen atom of one molecule and the nitrogen atom on an
adjacent molecule is classified as a hydrogen bond
- Ammonia relatively high boiling point compared with the other group 5 hydrides, although
this is much lower than that of water
- Weaker bond in ammonia due to the smaller dipole in turn is due to the smaller
electronegativity value of nitrogen compared to oxygen
- Weaker hydrogen bonding is why ammonia is more volatile than water it turns into a gas
readily and quite a strong odour
- Ammonia is extremely soluble in water due to the polar nature of both substances
- Strength of hydrogen bonding can be seen clearly when the boiling points of the hydrides of
groups 4,5,6 and 7 are graphed
- Unusually high boiling point for the hydrides of the first element of the group
- Sharp drop in boiling point, followed by a steady increase in boiling point as the number of
electrons in the molecules increases, due to increasing can der Waals forces
- Pattern for group 4 is different because methane is a symmetrical, non-polar molecule
- Molecules are of a similar size and we would therefore expect the van der Waals forces to
be of similar strengths; however, the effect of the presence of hydrogen bonding on the
boiling point is dramatic
EXERCISES SECTION 2.5
1. For each of the following molecules, identify the strongest type of intermolecular forces
they exhibit in the liquid state.
a) Dispersion forces
b) Dispersion forces
c) Hydrogen bonding
d) Dipole-dipole attraction
e) Dipole-dipole attraction
f) Dispersion forces
g) Dispersion forces
h) Hydrogen bonding
i) Dipole-dipole attraction
2. WEAKEST STRONGEST
Dispersion forces between atoms of helium
Covalent bonds between nitrogen atoms in N
2
molecules
Covalent bonds between carbon and hydrogen in CH
4

Dispersion forces between molecules of carbon dioxide
Permanent dipole-dipole bonds between SO
2
molecules
Permanent hydrogen bonds between HF molecules
3. On the basis of the intermolecular forces present, determine which molecule in each of
the following pairs has the higher boiling point. Explain your answer in each case.
a) Ethanol has more atoms, therefore more electrons, thus stronger instantaneous dipoles
higher boiling point
b) Dichloromethane has more atoms, therefore bigger atom higher boiling point
c) Water: Hydrogen bonding stronger bonds higher boiling point
d) Hydrogen bromide: Hydrogen bonding = stronger bonds higher boiling point
e) Ammonia: Hydrogen bonding = stronger bonds higher boiling point