{"id":225891,"date":"2025-06-04T18:00:12","date_gmt":"2025-06-04T18:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/?p=225891"},"modified":"2025-06-04T18:00:15","modified_gmt":"2025-06-04T18:00:15","slug":"is-the-molecule-xef2-polar-or-nonpolar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/2025\/06\/04\/is-the-molecule-xef2-polar-or-nonpolar\/","title":{"rendered":"Is the molecule XeF2 polar or nonpolar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Is the molecule XeF2 polar or nonpolar? The electronegativity of Xe is 2.6<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)\" class=\"has-inline-color has-ast-global-color-0-color\">The correct Answer and Explanation is:<\/mark><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Answer: XeF\u2082 (xenon difluoride) is a nonpolar molecule.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Explanation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To determine whether <strong>XeF\u2082<\/strong> is polar or nonpolar, we need to examine both its <strong>molecular geometry<\/strong> and the <strong>electronegativity differences<\/strong> between the atoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1. Electronegativity Consideration:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Xenon (Xe): 2.6<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Fluorine (F): 4.0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Difference in electronegativity between Xe and F = 4.0 \u2013 2.6 = <strong>1.4<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>This suggests that the <strong>Xe\u2013F bonds are polar<\/strong>, as fluorine is significantly more electronegative and will pull electron density toward itself. However, the polarity of individual bonds <strong>does not automatically<\/strong> mean the molecule is polar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2. Molecular Geometry:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>XeF\u2082 has <strong>five electron domains<\/strong> around the xenon atom (two bonding pairs for the fluorines and three lone pairs). According to <strong>VSEPR theory<\/strong>, this results in a <strong>trigonal bipyramidal<\/strong> electron geometry. The three lone pairs occupy the <strong>equatorial positions<\/strong> to minimize repulsion, and the two fluorine atoms occupy the <strong>axial positions<\/strong>, 180\u00b0 apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This gives XeF\u2082 a <strong>linear molecular shape<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>3. Net Dipole Moment:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even though each Xe\u2013F bond is polar, the <strong>linear geometry<\/strong> causes the two bond dipoles to point in exactly opposite directions. As a result, these dipoles <strong>cancel each other out<\/strong>, and there is <strong>no net dipole moment<\/strong> in the molecule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>4. Conclusion:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite having polar bonds, the <strong>symmetrical linear shape<\/strong> of XeF\u2082 ensures that the molecule is <strong>nonpolar overall<\/strong>. This is a classic example where geometry plays a crucial role in molecular polarity. The cancellation of equal and opposite dipole moments makes XeF\u2082 a <strong>nonpolar molecule<\/strong>, which affects its physical properties such as <strong>solubility and boiling point<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/learnexams-banner4-372.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-225892\"\/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Is the molecule XeF2 polar or nonpolar? The electronegativity of Xe is 2.6 The correct Answer and Explanation is: Answer: XeF\u2082 (xenon difluoride) is a nonpolar molecule. Explanation To determine whether XeF\u2082 is polar or nonpolar, we need to examine both its molecular geometry and the electronegativity differences between the atoms. 1. Electronegativity Consideration: This [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-exams-certification"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=225891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learnexams.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}