Question

1.  The dipole moment of BrCl is 0.518 D and the distance between atoms is 213.9 pm. What is the percent ionic character of the BrCl bond?

Answer 1

When a covalent bond is formed between two atoms of different electronegativities, the electrons of the covalent bond are not shared equally between the two atoms. Such a bond is known as polar covalent bond.

Due to this polar nature of the covalent bond a dipole is generated.

The dipole moment of a molecule is the measure of the polarity or the separation of the charge of a covalent bond.

Given:

Observed Dipole moment of BrCl: μ_Obs = 0.518 D

Distance between the atoms: d = 213.9 pm = 213.9 x 10^-12 m (since, 1pm = 10^-12 m)

Also,

Charge = 1.6 x 10^-19 C

Now, the dipole moment of BrCl bond is given by the equation,

Dipole moment (μ_Cal) = Charge (q) x Distance between the atoms (d)
= (1.6 x 10^-19 C) x (213.9 x 10^-12 m)

= 342.24 x 10 ^-31 Cm = 3.4224 X 10^-29 Cm

Since, 3.33564×10⁻³⁰C·m = 1 D

Therefore,