Water (H2O) is polar because of the bent shape of the molecule. The highly electronegative oxygen atom attracts electrons or negative charge to it, making the region around the oxygen more negative than the areas around the two hydrogen atoms.

Polarity of water molecules A water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms bonded to an oxygen atom, and its overall structure is bent. This gives the oxygen end of the water molecule a partial negative charge, while the hydrogen end has a partial positive charge.

In a water molecule, the oxygen atom and hydrogen atoms share electrons in covalent bonds, but the sharing is not equal. The unequal sharing of electrons gives the water molecule a slight negative charge near its oxygen atom and a slight positive charge near its hydrogen atoms.

Significance. Polarity is important because it determines whether a molecule is hydrophilic (from the Greek for water-loving) or hydrophobic (from the Greek for water-fearing or water-averse). Molecules with high polarity are hydrophilic, and mix well with other polar compounds such as water.

Water is a “polar” molecule, meaning that there is an uneven distribution of electron density. Water has a partial negative charge ( ) near the oxygen atom due the unshared pairs of electrons, and partial positive charges ( ) near the hydrogen atoms.

Capillary Action …..in Action! Capillary action occurs because water is sticky, thanks to the forces of cohesion (water molecules like to stay close together) and adhesion (water molecules are attracted and stick to other substances).

Water (H2O) is an example of a polar molecule since it has a slight positive charge on one side and a slight negative charge on the other. The dipoles do not cancel out, resulting in a net dipole. Due to the polar nature of the water molecule itself, other polar molecules are generally able to dissolve in water.

Oils, by contrast, are nonpolar, and as a result they’re not attracted to the polarity of water molecules. In fact, oils are hydrophobic, or “water fearing.” Instead of being attracted to water molecules, oil molecules are repelled by them.

The pole with more electrons is said to have negative polarity. The pole with fewer electrons then has a positive polarity. When the two poles are connected by a wire, electrons flow from the negative pole toward the positive pole. This flow is called an electric current.

The molecule with the polar bond that has the greatest difference in electronegativity is the most polar. For example a carbon-oxygen bond is more polar than an oxygen-fluorine bond because the difference in electronegativity for oxygen and carbon is greater than the difference between fluorine and oxygen.

The greater the electronegativity difference between atoms in a bond, the more polar the bond. Partial negative charges are found on the most electronegative atoms, the others are partially positive.

The quick answer – right from the get-go, since nitrogen is one of the most electronegative elements in the periodic table, the bond it forms with hydrogen will be the most polar out of all those listed. The polarity of a bond is given by the difference in electronegativity between the two atoms that form said bond.

Greater the difference in electronegativity, more polar will be the bond. Among HCl, HBr, HI bond polarity increases in the order HI < HBr < HCl because difference in electronegativity between H and the halogen increases in the order I < Br < Cl.

The C-F bond is more polar than C-Cl bond because F is more electronegative than Cl. And also the polarity also depends on bond length and since due to the greater size of Cl atom the bond length is less than F and hence the low polarity.

Consider the hydrogen chloride (HCl) molecule. Chlorine has a higher electronegativity than hydrogen, but the chlorine atom’s attraction for electrons is not sufficient to remove an electron from hydrogen. Consequently, the bonding electrons in hydrogen chloride are shared unequally in a polar covalent bond.

The answer is d. Hence, among F, Cl and Br, Fluorine is the most electronegative which makes the H-F bond the most polar since fluorine is able to pull the electron density toward itself more. H2 is nonpolar since the two atoms involved in the bond are identical.

C−H bond is least polar as the electronegativity difference between C and H is the least.

Step 2: Identify each bond as either polar or nonpolar. (If the difference in electronegativity for the atoms in a bond is greater than 0.4, we consider the bond polar. If the difference in electronegativity is less than 0.4, the bond is essentially nonpolar.) If there are no polar bonds, the molecule is nonpolar.

Hydrogen iodide, HI, has a net dipole moment of 0.38D. While not a large dipole moment (in comparison, water is 1.85D), it’s not zero. Therefore, HI is weakly polar. The 2 electrons in the polar covalent bond between the single hydrogen atom and the iodine atom are NOT shared equally.