JEE Advance - Chemistry (1993 - No. 12)

The dipole moment of KCl is 3.336 $$\times$$ 10-29 Coulomb meters which indicates that it is a highly polar molecule. The interatomic distance between K+ and Cl- in this molecule is 2.6 $$\times$$ 10-10. Calculate the dipole moment of KCl molecule if there were opposite charges of one fundamental unit located at each nucleus. Calculate the percentage ionic character of KCl.
60.11 %
70.11 %
90.11 %
80.11 %
50.11 %

Explanation

To calculate the dipole moment assuming one elementary charge of opposite kinds located at each nucleus, and to determine the percentage ionic character of KCl, we will use the concepts of charge and distance in the dipole moment equation, and understand the measure of ionic character compared to a hypothetical purely ionic bond.

Step 1: Calculating theoretical dipole moment
The elementary charge (e) is $$ 1.602 \times 10^{-19} $$ Coulombs. If KCl were purely ionic, the potassium and chlorine atoms would carry charges of +e and -e respectively. The dipole moment $$ \mu $$ is calculated by the formula:

$$ \mu = q \times d $$

where: - $$ q $$ is the charge in Coulombs (+e for K+ and -e for Cl-) - $$ d $$ is the separation distance between the charges, which is 2.6 $$ \times 10^{-10} $$ meters. Thus, using the values: $$ \mu = 1.602 \times 10^{-19} \, \text{Coulombs} \times 2.6 \times 10^{-10} \, \text{meters} = 4.1652 \times 10^{-29} \, \text{Coulomb meters} $$

Step 2: Actual dipole moment of KCl
The actual measured dipole moment of KCl is given as 3.336 $$ \times $$ 10-29 Coulomb meters. This is due to the actual electron distribution in the bond being not purely ionic.

Step 3: Percentage ionic character
The percentage ionic character can be calculated by comparing the actual dipole moment to the theoretical dipole moment for fully ionic charges, using the formula:

$$ \text{Percentage Ionic Character} = \left(\frac{\text{Actual Dipole Moment}}{\text{Theoretical Dipole Moment}}\right) \times 100\% $$

Substituting the values we have:

$$ \text{Percentage Ionic Character} = \left(\frac{3.336 \times 10^{-29}}{4.1652 \times 10^{-29}}\right) \times 100\% = 80.11\% $$

This calculation shows that while KCl is primarily ionic, it has less than 100% ionic character, indicating some degree of covalent character in its bonding, where the electron distribution is not completely transferred but shared to a certain extent.

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