Why most of the alkanes are Hydrophobic in nature?

1 Answer
anor277
Jan 28, 2017

Because the C-H (and more so the C-C) bonds are relatively non-polar...

Explanation:

Water solubility, or if you like "hydrophilicity", depends on the polarity of the bonds in the solute. Water can dissolve strongly polar materials which feature OH bonds. Water can also dissolve some ionic solutes, where polarity has graduated to complete charge separation.

On the other hand, C-H and C-C bonds are very non-polar, i.e. there is no charge separation that might be solvated by a polar solvent (such as water, or short chain alcohols). And thus the alkanes tend to have little solubility in aqueous media.

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