While heavily restricted in aqueous systems, alkyl halides tend to be highly miscible and soluble in common non-polar or weakly polar organic solvents like benzene, ether, and chloroform. What is the

Question

While heavily restricted in aqueous systems, alkyl halides tend to be highly miscible and soluble in common non-polar or weakly polar organic solvents like benzene, ether, and chloroform. What is the fundamental thermodynamic reason verifying this high organic solubility?

Prashant Kotian · Accepted Answer

Correct answer: B. Solubility obeys the thermodynamic principle of "like dissolves like." Alkyl halides are held together by moderate dipole-dipole and van der Waals forces, much like typical organic solvents. When an alkyl halide dissolves in an organic solvent, the energy required to break the solute-solute and solvent-solvent interactions is almost perfectly compensated by the formation of new, structurally similar solute-solvent interactions. Because the enthalpy of mixing () is very close to zero, the process is enthusiastically driven forward by the highly favorable increase in the entropy of mixing ().

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