Whats the difference between inorganic and organic solvents?
1. Organic solvents always contain the element carbon. Inorganic solvents don’t contain the element carbon. The most common solvent, water, is an example of an inorganic solvent. There are many more organic solvents than inorganic solvents. 2. Using the adage “like dissolves like” is helpful in determining solubility characteristics of a compound in a given solvent. For example, paraffin wax would dissolve in a hydrocarbon solvent such as cyclohexane, because they are both hydrocarbons. Paraffin wax would not dissove in a polar solvent such as water. 3. Depends on the polarity of the compound to be dissolved and the polartiy of the organic solvent. For example, the polar organic compound benzoic acid has much more solubility in ethanol (a polar organic solvent) than cyclohexane (a nonpolar organic solvent).
Differences between organic and inorganic solvents:-
1. Almost all organic solvents are non- polar while nearly all inorganic solvents are polar in nature.
2. Organic solvents are made by organic compounds while inorganic solvents are made by inorganic compounds.
3. All organic solvents contain covalent compounds while inorganic solvents contain mostly ionic compounds.
4. Organic solvents contain di, tri , tertra ,…….multi atomic solvent components where as inorganic solvents are mostly di, tri, tetra atomic not usually more than that.