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Topic: Is hydrogen sulphide polar or non-polar?  (Read 915 times)

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Offline Zoidberg1201

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Is hydrogen sulphide polar or non-polar?
« on: June 20, 2020, 01:31:41 PM »
Hi all,
    The difference in electronegativity values between Hydrogen (2.1)and Sulphur (2.5) is only 0.4. Any difference <0.5 is insufficient to create a polar molecule. But some sources say H2S is a polar molecule.

Could someone please clarify?
Thanks.

Offline Babcock_Hall

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Re: Is hydrogen sulphide polar or non-polar?
« Reply #1 on: June 22, 2020, 02:32:20 PM »
There are always going to be cases that fall into a grey zone, and IMO hydrogen sulfide does exactly that.  One thing to consider is that sulfur can participate in hydrogen bonding.

If H2S loses a proton to a base, how would you describe the polarity of the conjugate base of hydrogen sulphide?
« Last Edit: June 22, 2020, 03:36:23 PM by Babcock_Hall »

Offline Enthalpy

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Re: Is hydrogen sulphide polar or non-polar?
« Reply #2 on: June 22, 2020, 04:16:02 PM »
Electronegativity is a flawed theory. It's normal that predictions based on it fail sometimes.

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