Q.What properties of water make it useful as a solvent? What types of compound can it

Properties of water making it a good solvent:

• A high dipole moment (highly polar O–H bonds and a bent molecular shape) allows strong electrostatic interaction with charged and polar species.
• A high dielectric constant weakens the electrostatic attraction between oppositely-charged ions in an ionic lattice once immersed, helping the lattice dissociate.
• Its ability to form extensive hydrogen bonds lets it interact strongly with polar covalent molecules bearing –OH, –NH, or similar groups.

(i) What it dissolves:

• Ionic (electrovalent) compounds — e.g., NaCl, KCl — water molecules surround and hydrate the individual cations and anions (ion–dipole interaction), overcoming the lattice energy and dispersing the ions into solution.
• Polar covalent (molecular) compounds capable of hydrogen bonding — e.g., sugars, alcohols, ammonia — dissolve because their polar groups hydrogen-bond with water molecules.

(ii) What it hydrolyses:

Water hydrolyses covalent compounds that have sufficiently polar/polarisable bonds, especially halides of non-metals (or metalloids) with available low-lying orbitals or high electronegativity differences — e.g.:

$PCl_3(l) + 3H_2O(l) \rightarrow H_3PO_3(aq) + 3HCl(aq)$ …

Identify the physical properties (polarity, dielectric constant, H-bonding capacity) that make water a good solvent, then separately answer what it dissolves (ionic + polar covalent) v …

• Conflating "dissolve" and "hydrolyse" as the same process — dissolution leaves the solute chemically unchanged, while hydrolysis breaks the solute apart chemically. …