Question

Why are ionic compounds soluble in water and covalent compounds not soluble in water

Answer 1

Because ionic bonds are polar and made from positive and negative ions, each element in an ionic compound has a charge.

When an ionic compound is put into water, it dissolves. Water is covalent however it is slightly polar (water and oxygen each have a slight charge).

The slightly positive element in water (which is hydrogen) attracts the negatively charged element in the ionic compound, and the slightly negative element in water (which is oxygen) attracts the positively charged element in the ionic compound. This causes the ionic compound to dissolve and break apart from each other and the hydrogen's surround the negative ion and the oxygen's surround the positive ion.

It is important to note that the water molecules do not break apart.

Covalent bonds are not soluble in water because the elements in a covalent compound do not have charges, therefore they do not break apart when placed in a solution that does have slight positive and negative charges (as there is no attraction).

I hope this helps! Ill put a picture in my next post so you can see what I'm talking about with the ionic compounds dissolving in water. Ill use NaCl in water as an example (NaCl is ionic)