Why does oxygen is a gas but sulphur a solid?
Best Answer - Chosen by Voters
The melting and boiling points of a substance will determine whether it will exist as solid, liquiq or gas at room temperature.
A substance with high melting and boiling points usually exists as solid at room temperature.
Oxygen exists as a diatomic molecules whereas sulphur exists as S6.
Both oxygen(O2) and sulphur(S6) are non polar molecules. Between the molecules, there are intermolecular forces of attraction(IMFOA). This IMFOA is called van der Waals forces. The strength of van der Waals forces depends on the size of the molecules. Since S6 molecules is larger than O2 molecules, the v.d.W forces between the S6 molecules is stronger than that between the O2 molecules, the melting point of sulphur is higher than that of O2. Hence sulphur exists as solid and O2 exists as gas( it has a very low melting and boiling point)
A substance with high melting and boiling points usually exists as solid at room temperature.
Oxygen exists as a diatomic molecules whereas sulphur exists as S6.
Both oxygen(O2) and sulphur(S6) are non polar molecules. Between the molecules, there are intermolecular forces of attraction(IMFOA). This IMFOA is called van der Waals forces. The strength of van der Waals forces depends on the size of the molecules. Since S6 molecules is larger than O2 molecules, the v.d.W forces between the S6 molecules is stronger than that between the O2 molecules, the melting point of sulphur is higher than that of O2. Hence sulphur exists as solid and O2 exists as gas( it has a very low melting and boiling point)
No comments:
Post a Comment