Is methanol a polar molecule?
1 Answer
Jul 22, 2016
Yes.
)
- To begin with, methanol,
#"H"_3"C"-"OH"# , is asymmetrical, so it could not be nonpolar (being 100% symmetrical in all directions means all dipole moments would cancel out completely). - The molecular geometry around oxygen in methanol is bent.
- Oxygen is more electronegative than carbon or hydrogen, so the electron density is skewed towards oxygen.
- Therefore, there is a net dipole with the negative end pointing through oxygen, and methanol is polar.
