Question

Is carbon tetrabromide more likely to dissolve in water or liquid CO2? Why?

Answer 1

Carbon tetrabromide is more likely to dissolve in liquid CO₂ because both are non-polar.

CBr4 has tetrahedral structure having 4 C-Br bonds. These bonds are arranged in symmetrical manner. So dipole moments of these bonds cancels each other resulting in zero dipole.

Similarly CO2 is also non-polar. It has linear symmetrical structure. As the moments of two C-O bonds, having opposite direction cancels each other. Hence it is non-polar.

As we know " like dissolve like ". So, these two are more likely soluble in each other.