Title of Experiment : Identification of intermolecular forces responsible for certain

physical characteristics of some substance

Purposes
i. To predict the miscibility of two liquids
ii. To determine the strength of the dipole characteristic of a liquid

Introduction

Intermolecular forces (IMF) are the forces which mediate interaction between atoms,
including forces of attraction or repulsion which act between atoms and other types of
neighboring particles such as atoms or ions. Intermolecular forces are weaker compared to
intramolecular forces which is the forces that hold a molecule together. There are different
intermolecular forces for different atoms, which vary in their strength levels. There are two main
types of intermolecular forces which are Van Der Waal’s forces and Hydrogen Bonds. Van Der
Waal’s forces are further subcategorized as London Dispersion and Dipole-Dipole.

London Dispersion forces is the weakest of all the intermolecular forces because they
occur in molecules that have non-polar bonds. If a bond is non-polar, that means that the
electrons between the two covalently bonded atoms are shared equally. A bond is determined
to be non-polar if the electronegativity difference between the two atoms is 0.4 or less. If the
difference is greater than 0.4, then the bond is polar, meaning that the electrons between the
two atoms are not shared equally. Polar bonds have a partial charge, so they have a stronger
IMF which is called Dipole-Dipole interaction. If a molecule is partially charged, it is more easily
able to stick to other molecules with partial charges, so the IMF must be stronger.

The next strongest IMF is the Hydrogen Bond. This bonding between molecules occurs
when Hydrogen atoms in one molecule are extremely attracted and almost bond to an Oxygen,
Nitrogen, or Fluorine atom of another molecule. Hydrogen bonds are stronger than Dipole-
Dipole forces because they occur when bonds with Hydrogens inside molecules are extremely
polar, meaning that the electronegativity difference is very large. Ionic molecules are a
completely different story. Ionic bonds have a full charge, so they stick to other ionic molecules
perfectly. There is no sharing of the electrons, so there is no unequal distribution. They do not
have intermolecular force because they are their own. Due to all this, ionic bonds have a
stronger force between them then any intermolecular force, so in other words, they are the
strongest on the scale of strength.

Experimental Design
 Gloves should be wear when handling the organic compounds to avoid irritation because it
is highly flammable and give off vapour.

 When taking the temperature, the tip of the thermometer should not touch the wall or the
bottom of the boiling tube as it will gives inaccurate temperature reading.

 The cotton wool is stuffed in the beaker around the test tube because it allowed vapour to
escape to surrounding.

Observation
Part A
 When cyclohexane solution was added into ethanol solution, the two liquids mixed
completely. The final temperature of mixture obtained was 22oC and the colour of the
mixture remains unchanged (colourless).
 When butanone solution was added into propanone solution, the two liquids mixed
completely. The final temperature of mixture obtained was 25oC and the colour of the
mixture remains unchanged (colourless).
 When water was added into propanone solution, the two liquids mixed completely. The final
temperature of the mixture obtained was 32oC and the colour of the mixture remains
unchanged (colourless).

Part B
 When a ruler that has been rubbed with cottons was placed near to the running water, the
water deflected at 93.3 mm which it was increased by 13.3 mm from its initial.
 When a ruler that has been rubbed with cottons was placed near to the running ethanol, the
ethanol deflected at 85.0 mm which it was increased by 5.0 mm from its initial.
 When a ruler that has been rubbed with cottons was placed near to the running propanone,
the propanone deflected at 85.7 mm which it was increased by 5.7 mm from its initial.
 When a ruler that has been rubbed with cottons was placed near to the running hexane, the
hexane deflected at 80.3 mm which it was increased by 0.3 mm from its initial.
 When a ruler that has been rubbed with cottons was placed near to the running
cyclohexane, the degree of deflection remains unchanged from its initial which is 80.0 mm.
 When a ruler that has been rubbed with cottons was placed near to the running ethyl
acetate, the ethyl acetate deflected at 88.7 mm which it was increased by 8.7 mm from its
initial.

Data and Evaluation

Table 1 Part A : The Miscibility of Liquids

Solvent Ethanol Cyclohexane Propanone Butanone Propanone Water

Initial 30 24 28 25 30 26
Temperature,
R1 (oC)

Initial 30 24 28 25 30 26
Temperature,
R2 (oC)

Initial 30 24 28 25 30 26
Temperature,
R3 (oC)

Average (oC) 30 24 28 25 30 26
Final 22 25 32
temperature of
mixture, R1 (oC)
Final 22 25 32
temperature of
mixture, R2 (oC)
Final 22 25 32
temperature of
mixture, R3 (oC)

Average (oC) 22 25 32

Table 2 Part B : Testing Liquids For a Permanent Dipole

 Solvent Reading 1, R1 (mm) Reading 1, R2 (mm) Reading 1, R3 (mm) Average
final reading
Initial Final Initial Final Initial Final (mm)

Water 80 92 80 95 80 93 93.3
Ethanol 80 86 80 85 80 84 85.0

Propanone 80 87 80 85 80 85 85.7
Hexane 80 80 80 81 80 80 80.3

Cyclohexane 80 80 80 80 80 80 80.0

Ethyl 80 88 80 87 80 91 88.7
Acetate

Discussion and Conclusion

In this experiment, we were identifying the intermolecular forces that are responsible for
certain physical characteristics of six substances. In order to determine the strength difference,
one must first understand what intermolecular forces are and what they do. Intermolecular
forces or IMF are the attractive and repulsive forces that arise between the molecules of a
substance. These force mediate the interaction between individual molecules of a substance.
They are not to be mistaken with intramolecular forces which are the forces between atoms
inside the molecule itself. Generally, IMF are the forces that keep multiple molecule together.
There are two parts in this experiment. Part A was mainly about miscibility which refers to the
ability of a liquid solute to dissolve in a liquid solvent. It is different with solubility because
solubility is a more general term but it is more often used to refer the ability of a solid solute to
dissolve in a liquid solvent. There were three pairs of solutions used in this part which were
ethanol-cyclohexane, propanone-butanone and propanone-water. For the first pair, the initial
temperature of ethanol is 30oC and 24oC for cyclohexane. Their resultant mixture has the lowest
temperature which is 22oC. The second pair, propanone-butanone has initial temperature of
28oC and 25oC, respectively. Their average temperature of resultant mixture is 25oC. The
highest temperature of resultant mixture with the reading of 32oC is the third pair which is
propanone-water where their initial temperature were 30oC and 26oC, respectively. This is due
to high temperature of propanone. All molecules mostly only have Van Der Waals forces
between them but propanone has addition of hydrogen bonding which is slightly stronger and
also create double bond with oxygen. The stronger forces between molecules means that more
energy is required to break apart the molecules and therefore the substance has a higher
boiling point thus high resultant temperature with water. In addition, to explain further about
miscibility is that it refers to the polarity of a liquid. Liquid solutions can be described as either
polar or non-polar substances. If two liquids possess similar polarities, they will form a
homogenous solution that will be miscible. By that explanation, it showed that all pairs (mixture)
were miscible because they did mixed together but there were not any changes in colour as
they were all colourless. In Part B, we were testing the six liquids which are water, ethanol,
propanone, hexane, cyclohexane and ethyl acetate for their permanent dipole. First of all, dipole
moment occur when there is a separation of charge. They can occur between two ions in an
ionic bond or between atoms in a covalent bond and by right, dipole moments arise from
differences in electronegativity. The larger the difference in electronegativity, the larger the
dipole moment. The initial reading for all is 80 mm. The average final reading of water, ethanol,
propanone, hexane, cyclohexane and ethyl acetate were 93.3 mm, 85.0 mm, 85.7 mm, 80.3
mm, 80.0 mm and 88.7 mm, respectively. This showed that cyclohexane does not change its
dipole reading and remains 80.0 mm. This tells that some molecules have dipole moments while
other not. This is due to the arrangement of the bonds in molecules that have V-shaped, trigonal
pyramidal, seesaw, T-shaped, and square pyramidal geometries, the bond dipole
moments cannot cancel one another. Consequently, molecules with these geometries
always have a nonzero dipole moment.

The structural formula and dipole moment of every liquids used in the experiment part B
were shown as below:

Structural formula Dipole moment

Ethanol Polar

Cyclohexane Non-polar
Propanone Polar

Butanone Polar

Hexane Non-polar

Ethyl acetate Polar

Water Polar

As explained above, miscibility is the property of two liquids to mix in all proportions, forming a
homogenous solution. In simpler words, miscibility refers to the ability of a liquid to completely
dissolve in another liquid. Based on part A experiment, we could tell that all liquids which were
ethanol-cyclohexane, propanone-butanone and propanone-water were all miscible. This is
because they all mixed completely and dissolve with each other forming a mixture which was
homogenous. The mixture is labelled miscible if they did not formed a distinct layer between the
two liquids. Firstly in part b experiment, permanent dipole occurs when two atoms in a molecule
have substantially different electronegativity which one attracts electrons more than another and
becoming more negative while the other atom becomes more positive. Generally, a molecule
with permanent dipole moment is called a polar molecule. Based on the result, we could tell that
ethanol, propanone, butanone, ethyl acetate and water are polar molecules. While cyclohexane
and hexane are non-polar molecules. In cyclohexane and also hexane, the difference in the
electronegativity of the hydrogen and the carbon is not great that makes they are both non-polar.
Water is a polar molecule because the difference in electronegativity of the hydrogen and
oxygen is great. Oxygen is also able to draw the electrons in the covalent bonds away from the
hydrogen nuclei. This means that the greater difference in electronegativity of a molecule makes
a polar molecule. However in both parts of experiments, there might have been some errors that
could affected the results. Firstly in part A, the same thermometer is used in all trials which
might have given an inaccurate readings besides, due to its surrounding, the temperature
readings might have been affected a bit. Secondly, the ruler that is used to measure the degree
of deflection in part B might have not dried off completely and had been left on the ruler which
could affected the deflection very well. This could have been improved by using different dry
ruler for each trials. Another possible error is that the opening of the burette might have been
different which some might had been opened a little bit bigger than any, allowing the liquids
went out a lot more than another. This might as well affected the results in part B.
 In conclusion, London Dispersion and Dipole-Dipole intermolecular forces were the
weakest of all the intermolecular forces. Hydrogen Bonds are the next strongest and ionic bonds
are by far the strongest. Based on part A, we learned that miscibility can be observed by mixing
two liquids together and whether the mixture completely dissolves or not. Whereas in part B, we
determined the permanent dipole moment of substances whether it is polar or non-polar
molecules based on their electronegavity difference in the molecule, if there was a great
difference in electronegativity, the molecule is labelled as polar molecule, and vice versa. It is
concluded that in this experiment, we were able to predict the miscibility of two liquids. Besides,
we were able to determine the strength of the dipole characteristics of the liquid.

References
1. https://sciencing.com/differences-between-solubility-miscibility-8663853.html
2. https://www.khanacademy.org/science/class-11-chemistry-india/xfbb6cb8fc2bd00c8:in-in-
states-of-matter/xfbb6cb8fc2bd00c8:in-in-intermolecular-forces/a/intramolecular-and-
intermolecular-forces
3. https://byjus.com/chemistry/different-types-of-intermolecular-forces/
4. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-mcc-organicchemistry/chapter/dipole-moments/