What is the effect of increasing the electronegativity of atoms in a molecule on
Practice Questions
Q1
What is the effect of increasing the electronegativity of atoms in a molecule on its dipole moment?
Increases dipole moment
Decreases dipole moment
No effect
Reverses dipole moment
Questions & Step-by-Step Solutions
What is the effect of increasing the electronegativity of atoms in a molecule on its dipole moment?
Step 1: Understand what electronegativity means. It is a measure of how strongly an atom attracts electrons in a bond.
Step 2: Recognize that in a molecule, if one atom is more electronegative than another, it will pull the shared electrons closer to itself.
Step 3: Realize that this unequal sharing of electrons creates a charge difference within the molecule.
Step 4: Know that this charge difference is called a dipole moment, which is a measure of the polarity of the molecule.
Step 5: Conclude that if you increase the electronegativity of the atoms in a molecule, the difference in charge distribution becomes greater, leading to a larger dipole moment.
