In: Chemistry
Water has a much lower boiling point and viscosity than hexadecane. But, water is capable of hydrogen bonding and hexadecane does not… shouldn’t water have the higher boiling point and viscosity? Explain why this occurs.
Greater the strength of intermolecular forces, higher the boiling point and viscosity of the liquid.
Water can indeed participate in hydrogen bonding but it has a very low molecular mass of 18 amu.
Hexadecane C16H34, on the other hand, is a very large molecule. It has a molecular mass of 226.4 amu, more than 12 times that of water! Though it is non-polar, and has weak dispersion forces (weaker than hydrogen bonding), the large size and large surface area of the molecule results in a large magnitude of dispersion forces.
This is because the magnitude of dispersion forces depends directly on the molecular mass and surface area of the molecule.
Thus, due to high magnitude of attractive intermolecular forces, hexadecane has higher boiling point and viscosity than water.