Answer to Question #39988 in Organic Chemistry for sid`

Question

sodium stearate, CH3(CH2)16COONa, which of the intermolecular forces between particles will not be present?

Answer 1

There are 4 types of intermolecular forces:

1) Dipole-dipole interactions
2) Ion-dipole and ion-induced dipole forces
3) Hydrogen bonding
4) Van der Waals forces

The sodium stearate CH₃(CH₂)₁₆COONa is an ionic compound, and its organic part contains polar groups. Therefore the first two types of intermolecular interactions will be incarnated. The non-polar tails of stearic acid residue will interact one with another through Van der Waals forces.

The only interaction that can not be observed in case of sodium stearate is hydrogen bonding. The organic part of molecule does not contain the acidic enough hydrogen atoms with high charge, so the hydrogen bond cannot occur.