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Chemistry · Glossary

What is Polar, protic and aprotic solvents?

Also known as: polar solvent · protic solvent · aprotic solvent

Definition 4.9 University Chemistry — Year 1 · Chapter 4 — Intermolecular Forces and Solvents

A polar solvent is made of molecules with a large dipole moment and has a large relative permittivity (above about 15); an apolar solvent has a small one. A protic solvent has molecules that carry hydrogen atoms able to form hydrogen bonds (O−H\ce{O-H} or N−H\ce{N-H}); an aprotic solvent has none.

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