Dissolving Ethanol

dissolver

When ethanol dissolves, the individual molecules stay intact right? It doesn't dissolve like a hydrohalic acid in which the polar bond actually breaks?

mrjeffy321

Right, ethanol does not break into ions in solution as say....Sodium Chloride would.
When ethanol is put into solution, the molecule stays together.

Ethanol (l) --H2O--> Ethanol (aq)

GCT

Actually its more of a dynamic interaction between water and ethanol, same with water-water interactions. That is the intermolecular interactions are transient, the hydrogens are transferred throughout the solution; also note that ethanol has a significant pKa.

mrjeffy321

Really? Obviously there would be some significant Hydrogen bonding going on, but it actually gets ionized?

GCT

Yeah, even with water, the hydrogen bonds are transient, however the lifetimes of these bonds relative to other weaker intermolecular bonds e.g. small van der wall interactions, are somewhat greater. The hydrogen ions are passed between the water molecules, even at a pH of 7. Biochemists take this perspective more seriously, although it is somewhat less important for undergraduate chemistry.