Molecular Dipoles
Many molecules have such dipole moments due to non-uniform distributions of positive and negative charges on the various atoms. Such is the case with polar compounds like hydrogen fluoride (HF), where electron density is shared unequally between atoms. Therefore, a molecule's dipole is an electric dipole with an inherent electric field which should not be confused with a magnetic dipole which generates a magnetic field.
The physical chemist Peter J. W. Debye was the first scientist to study molecular dipoles extensively, and, as a consequence, dipole moments are measured in units named debye in his honor.
For molecules there are three types of dipoles:
- Permanent dipoles: These occur when two atoms in a molecule have substantially different electronegativity: One atom attracts electrons more than another, becoming more negative, while the other atom becomes more positive. A molecule with a permanent dipole moment is called a polar molecule. See dipole-dipole attractions.
- Instantaneous dipoles: These occur due to chance when electrons happen to be more concentrated in one place than another in a molecule, creating a temporary dipole. See instantaneous dipole.
- Induced dipoles: These can occur when one molecule with a permanent dipole repels another molecule's electrons, inducing a dipole moment in that molecule. A molecule is polarized when it carries an induced dipole. See induced-dipole attraction.
More generally, an induced dipole of any polarizable charge distribution ρ (remember that a molecule has a charge distribution) is caused by an electric field external to ρ. This field may, for instance, originate from an ion or polar molecule in the vicinity of ρ or may be macroscopic (e.g., a molecule between the plates of a charged capacitor). The size of the induced dipole is equal to the product of the strength of the external field and the dipole polarizability of ρ.
Dipole moment values can be obtained from measurement of the dielectric constant. Some typical gas phase values in debye units are:
- carbon dioxide: 0
- carbon monoxide: 0.112 D
- ozone: 0.53 D
- phosgene: 1.17 D
- water vapor: 1.85 D
- hydrogen cyanide: 2.98 D
- cyanamide: 4.27 D
- potassium bromide: 10.41 D
KBr has one of the highest dipole moments because it is a very ionic molecule (which only exists as a molecule in the gas phase).
The overall dipole moment of a molecule may be approximated as a vector sum of bond dipole moments. As a vector sum it depends on the relative orientation of the bonds, so that from the dipole moment information can be deduced about the molecular geometry. For example the zero dipole of CO2 implies that the two C=O bond dipole moments cancel so that the molecule must be linear. For H2O the O-H bond moments do not cancel because the molecule is bent. For ozone (O3) which is also a bent molecule, the bond dipole moments are not zero even though the O-O bonds are between similar atoms. This agrees with the Lewis structures for the resonance forms of ozone which show a positive charge on the central oxygen atom.
An example in organic chemistry of the role of geometry in determining dipole moment is the cis and trans isomers of 1,2-dichloroethene. In the cis isomer the two polar C-Cl bonds are on the same side of the C=C double bond and the molecular dipole moment is 1.90 D. In the trans isomer, the dipole moment is zero because the two C-Cl bond are on opposite sides of the C=C and cancel (and the two bond moments for the much less polar C-H bonds also cancel).
Note that it is critical to verify the geometry of a molecular species before engaging in any calculations of dipole moment. The polarity of individual bonds in a molecule is no guarantee that the molecule is polar. For example, one might readily assume that boron trifluoride is a polar molecule because the difference in electronegativity is greater than the traditionally cited threshold of 1.7. However, due to the equilateral triangular distribution of the fluoride ions about the boron cation center, the molecule as a whole does not exhibit any identifiable pole: one cannot construct a plane that divides the molecule into a net negative part and a net positive part.
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