Are triglycerides polar or non-polar?
Triglycerides are just fats, which have both nonpolar and polar parts. The areas with carbon-oxygen bonds are fairly polar, while the carbon-hydrogen bonded areas are nonpolar. Since there are extensive chains of carbon-hydrogen bonds in triglycerides, they are generally nonpolar and don’t dissolve in water, a polar liquid. As the saying goes, “like dissolves like,” and hence, nonpolar substances dissolve in nonpolar substances, polar in polar. In the case of water, you’ll often hear of triglycerides and fats having “hydrophobic” tails, which refer to their hydrocarbon chains, and “hydrophilic” heads, which refer to their oxygen-carbon groups. The hydrophobic heads of triglycerides dissolve in water, but the hydrophobic tails do not.
