dipole moment
Chemistry
Physics
(noun)
The vector product of the charge on either pole of a dipole and the distance separating them.
Examples of dipole moment in the following topics:
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Dipole Moments
- The electric dipole moment is a measure of polarity in a system.
- There are many different types of dipole moments, including electric dipole moments, magnetic dipole moments, and topological dipole moments.
- Among the subset of electric dipole moments are transition dipole moments, molecular dipole moments , bond dipole moments, and electron electric dipole moments.
- For the purposes of this atom we will focus on a broad overview of electric dipole moment in static situations.
- Relate the electric dipole moment to the polarity in a system
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Dipole Moment
- The bond dipole moment uses the idea of the electric dipole moment to measure a chemical bond's polarity within a molecule.
- Bond dipole moments are commonly measured in debyes, represented by the symbol D.
- Molecules with only two atoms contain only one (single or multiple) bond, so the bond dipole moment is the molecular dipole moment.
- At one extreme, a symmetrical molecule such as chlorine, Cl2, has 0 dipole moment.
- Symmetry is another factor in determining if a molecule has a dipole moment.
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Bond Polarity
- The Debye unit, D, is commonly used to express dipole moments.
- In molecules containing more than one polar bond, the molecular dipole moment is just the vector addition of the individual bond dipole moments.
- The linear shape of the CO2 molecule results in the canceling of the dipole moments of the two polar C=O bonds.
- The net, molecular dipole moment of CO2 is therefore zero, and the molecule is nonpolar.
- Apply knowledge of bond polarity and molecular geometry to identify the dipole moment of molecules
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A Physical Aside: Multipole Radiation
- It is possible to calculate the radiation field to higher order in $L/(c\tau)$.This is necessary if the dipole moment vanishes, for example.
- where $k\equiv\omega/c$$n=0$ gives the dipole radiation, $n=1$ gives the quadrupole radiation and so on.
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Ferromagnetism
- Ferromagnetism arises from the fundamental property of an electron; it also carries charge to have a dipole moment.
- This dipole moment comes from the more fundamental property of the electron—its quantum mechanical spin.
- However, in materials with a filled electron shell, the total dipole moment of the electrons is zero, as the spins are in up/down pairs.
- Only atoms with partially filled shells (i.e., unpaired spins) can have a net magnetic moment.
- (According to Hund's rules, the first few electrons in a shell tend to have the same spin, thereby increasing the total dipole moment. )
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Dipole-Dipole Force
- Dipole-dipole interactions are intermolecular attractions that result from two permanent dipoles interacting.
- Dipole-dipole forces: electrostatic interactions of permanent dipoles in molecules; includes hydrogen bonding.
- For example, a water molecule (H2O) has a large permanent electric dipole moment.
- Molecules often contain polar bonds because of electronegativity differences but have no overall dipole moment if they are symmetrical.
- Dipoles may form associations with other dipoles, induced dipoles or ions.
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Polarization
- This separation creates a dipole moment, as shown in .
- On the molecular level, polarization can occur with both dipoles and ions.
- One example of a dipole molecule is water, (H2O), which has a bent shape (the H-O-H angle is 104.45°) and in which the oxygen pulls electron density away from the H atoms, leaving the H relatively positive and the O relatively negative, as shown in .
- Water is an example of a dipole molecule, which has a bent shape (the H-O-H angle is 104.45°) and in which the oxygen pulls electron density away from the H atoms, leaving the H relatively positive and the O relatively negative.
- The atom's dipole moment is represented by M.
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Total Polarization
- The physical mechanism for this can be qualitatively understood from the manner in which electric dipoles in the media respond to p-polarized light (whose electric field is polarized in the same plane as the incident ray and the surface normal).
- One can imagine that light incident on the surface is absorbed, and then re-radiated by oscillating electric dipoles at the interface between the two media.
- The refracted light is emitted perpendicular to the direction of the dipole moment; no energy can be radiated in the direction of the dipole moment.
- Thus, if the angle of reflection θ1 (angle of reflection) is equal to the alignment of the dipoles (90 - θ2), where θ2 is angle of refraction, no light is reflected.
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The Shape of Molecules
- One way in which the shapes of molecules manifest themselves experimentally is through molecular dipole moments.
- A molecule which has one or more polar covalent bonds may have a dipole moment as a result of the accumulated bond dipoles.
- The bond dipoles are colored magenta and the resulting molecular dipole is colored blue.
- In the linear configuration (bond angle 180º) the bond dipoles cancel, and the molecular dipole is zero.
- In a similar manner the configurations of methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) may be deduced from their zero molecular dipole moments.
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Ion-Dipole Force
- Ion-dipole and ion-induced dipole forces operate much like dipole-dipole and induced dipole-dipole interactions.
- However, ion-dipole forces involve ions instead of solely polar molecules.
- Ion-dipole forces are stronger than dipole interactions because the charge of any ion is much greater than the charge of a dipole; the strength of the ion-dipole force is proportionate to ion charge.
- Ion-dipole bonding is also stronger than hydrogen bonding.
- Like a dipole-induced dipole force, the charge of the ion causes a distortion of the electron cloud in the non-polar molecule, causing a temporary partial charge.