question_answer 1)

What properties of water make it useful as a solvent? What type of compounds can it (i) dissolve (ii) hydrolyse?

Answer:

Water has high dielectric constant and polarity in the molecule, i.e., it has high dipole moment. These properties make water as good solvent for ionic and a number of covalant compounds. Ionic compounds dissolve in water due to ion-dipole interaction or solvation of ions while covalent compounds dissolve which can form hydrogen bonding with water. Compounds such as alcohols, amines, carbohydrates, etc., dissolve in water. Water can hydrolyse those compounds which can react with \[{{H}^{+}}\] or \[\text{O}{{\text{H}}^{-}}\]ions to produce an acid or a base or both. Oxides, hydrides carbides, nitrides, phosphide, etc., are hydrolysed by water. \[CaO+{{H}_{2}}O\to Ca{{(OH)}_{2}}\] \[S{{O}_{2}}+{{H}_{2}}O\to {{H}_{2}}S{{O}_{3}}\] \[Ca{{H}_{2}}+2{{H}_{2}}O\to Ca{{(OH)}_{2}}+2{{H}_{2}}\] \[Ca{{C}_{2}}+2{{H}_{2}}O\to Ca{{(OH)}_{2}}+{{C}_{2}}{{H}_{2}}\] \[M{{g}_{3}}{{N}_{2}}+6{{H}_{2}}O\to 3Mg{{(OH)}_{2}}+2N{{H}_{3}}\] \[C{{a}_{3}}{{P}_{2}}+6{{H}_{2}}O\to 3Ca{{(OH)}_{2}}+2P{{H}_{3}}\] \[PC{{l}_{5}}+4{{H}_{2}}O\to {{H}_{3}}P{{O}_{4}}+5HCl\]