Question #457ca

1 Answer
Dr. Hayek
Jun 9, 2016

Explanation:

The methyl fluoride #CH_3F# is a polar molecule. The polarity is due to the difference in the electronegativity between fluorine and carbon.

Fluorine, which i the most electronegative element will pull the electron density of carbon toward it, creating a partial negative charge on fluorine and a partial positive charge on carbon as is represented below:

#color(blue)(""^(+delta)C-F^(delta-))#

This polar bond will have a net dipole moment that will not cancel out, since the #color(red)(C-H)# bonds are considered to be non polar and thus, the molecule will have a net dipole moment and will be polar.

enter image source here

For such a molecule, the possible intermolecular interactions are:

  1. London Dispersion Force (LDF).
  2. Dipole - Dipole Interactions (DD).

Note, that, in this case DD is stronger than LDF and therefore, the main intermolecular interactions is the dipole-dipole (DD).

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