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Difference Between Polar and Non-polar

Polar vs Non-polar

When we first knew about chemistry, most of us found it fun and exciting. But it gets boring when all you study are the chemical properties, chemical bonds, table of elements, and so on and so forth. We get frustrated memorizing different properties, different processes, and a lot more. I also remember computing for different attributes of the solvents and solutions formed plus those dirty experiments that make the room smoking and stinking. Oh, well, chemistry is indeed a fun and crazy subject.

One of the most fundamental subjects that chemists take part in is knowing if a molecule is polar or non-polar. Let us see the differences between them both. The best way to determine if a molecule is polar or non-polar is through the arrangement of atoms. The arrangement of atoms in some molecules determine if it is polar or nonpolar. If a molecule is polar, it said to have a positive and negative electrical charge.

A non-polar molecule, on the other hand, does not have enough charge unlike polar molecules. Non-polar molecules are distributed in a symmetrical manner and do not contain abundant electrical charges that are attached on them. An example of a substance with a polar molecule is water. Water is composed of polar molecules because of the arrangement of the atoms, plus there is an abundant number of positive and negative electrical charges. Other examples under the gas category are: ammonia, sulfur, particularly sulfur dioxide, and lastly hydrogen sulfide.

Non-polar substance examples are hydrocarbons such as gasoline and toluene. In gases, most gases are non-polar such as methane, carbon dioxide, neon, krypton, and xenon. How important are polar and non-polar substances? Well, they are vital because in mixing substances, you cannot mix a polar and non-polar substance. For example, water is polar while oil is non-polar. When you try to mix them, it will not combine. However, when you mix alcohol, which is a polar substance, and water, it will mix because both are polar substances.

Knowing the polarity and nonpolarity of substances will enable chemists to mix chemicals quickly. This is important in chemical factories that produce chemical products for human and industrial usage.


1.Polar substances have enough positive and negative electrical charges on the atoms while non-polar substances do not have abundant charges.
2.Polar substances will mix with polar substances but polar substances will not mix with non-polar substances.
3.An example of polar substances are water and alcohol. An example of non-polar is oil.

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