Non-polar solvents and solutes

[Jarryd]

Sorry if i don't word this coherrently because i can't really articulate what i'm thinking in my head. But basically my question is i learnt in chem class that non-polar solutes can't be disolved in polar solvents because the solvent is more attracted to itself then the solute, and that non-polar solutes can only be disolved in non-polar solvents (like dissolves like). What i don't get is why the solute would be diluted at all even in a non-polar solvent, wouldn't it just stay in a more solid state floating in the non-polar solvent having no interaction with it because it has no charge?

[Skye]

Here's an interesting news piece on water and oil:

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn3408

[Yggdrasil]

Energy is not the only factor affecting the favorability of natural processes; one must also consider the change in entropy. The solid state of any material, while more energetically stable than a solution, is much more ordered. Dissolution of the solid corresponds to a change in entropy large enough to counteract the minor decrease in energy when the crystal lattice of the solid is broken up.

 

Interestingly, despite what people may tell you in high school or lower-division college courses, non-polar solutes don't disolve in polar solutions because of entropic factors, not energetic factors. Solvating non-polar solutes requires the solvent to become more ordered and thus decreasing its entropy.

[RyanJ]

I think its to do with van der walls forces. When the "cloud" of electrons are for ain instant concentrated more in on elocation than another allowing it to dissolve...

 

Is that is?

 

Cheers,

 

Ryan jones