Match the following physical and chemical properties with potassium chloride, KCl, used in salt substitutes, or butane, C₄H₁₀ used in lighters:
e. is a gas at room temperature

Question

Match the following physical and chemical properties with potassium chloride, KCl, used in salt substitutes, or butane, C₄H₁₀ used in lighters:

e. is a gas at room temperature

Accepted Answer

All right. Hi, everyone. So this question is asking us which of the following is most likely a gas at room temperature option A says N AC used as a seasoning option B says C CO three used as an ingredient in cement option CC three H eight used as cooking fuel and option D says NAO three used as a preservative. So to understand this question, we have to recall a concept known as intermolecular forces or imf's for short recall that imf's are interactions between molecules that bring them close together. So the physical state of a given substance depends on how strong these molecular or intermolecular forces happen to be. And so solids are characterized as having very strong IMF S because this way the molecules or particles of a particular solid are very close together, which is characteristic of a solid. Now gasses on the other hand, in contrast to solids have very weak intermolecular forces because that would explain why gas particles are floating away from each other and very far away from each other. Now recall that ionic bonds are some of the strongest intermolecular forces that we study. And the reason why I bring up ionic bonds specifically is because of some of the answer choices listed here specifically, we have N AC L or sodium chloride C AC LC three or calcium carbonate and we have sodium nitrate or nano three. Now, all of these compounds are actually ionic. All of these compounds are in fact ionic because notice how we have a metal cion and an anion. Now, in the case of sodium chloride, the anion is simply a nonmetal or chlorine specifically making the chloride ion. Whereas in the other two compounds, carbonate and nitrate are both poly atomic ions, but they are still anions all the same. So because options A B and D discuss ionic compounds, they're going to have very strong intermolecular forces, which means that all three of these compounds are expected to be solids at room temperature. So that leaves us with propane or C three H eight, which is used as a cooking fuel. Now, when we discuss the structure of propane specifically, we can see that it is composed of only non metals, specifically carbon and hydrogen. This means that propane is an example of a hydrocarbon, right? It is a compound that contains only carbon and hydrogen and recall it, hydrocarbons are characteristically non polar recall that nonpolar molecules can only be held together by relatively weak dispersion forces. So in addition to nonpolar compounds, having very weak IMF s specifically dispersion forces, propane itself is quite small because it is simply a three carbon chain with hydrogens attached. So because of this, the IMF s holding together molecules of propane in solution are in fact, very weak and so propane is expected to be a gas at room temperature because these propane molecules would not be held together significantly by these very weak IMF s. So therefore, our answer is going to be option c in the multiple choice because propane used as a cooking fuel is the most likely to be a gas at room temperature because it has the weakest IMF s of all the compounds examined in this video. And there you have it, it's also worth mentioning that ionic compounds in addition to being a solid at room temperature have very high melting and boiling points because of these very strong IMF S. But with that being said, thank you so very much for watching. And I hope you found this helpful.

Match the following physical and chemical properties with potassium chloride, KCl, used in salt substitutes, or butane, C₄H₁₀ used in lighters:
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e. is a gas at room temperature

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Key Concepts

Physical Properties

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Match the following physical and chemical properties with potassium chloride, KCl, used in salt substitutes, or butane, C4H10 used in lighters:<IMAGE>e. is a gas at room temperature