(a) List the following molecules in order of increasing polar- izability: GeCl4, CH4, SiCl4, SiH4, and GeBr4. (b) Predict the order of boiling points of the substances in part (a).

Video transcript

hey everyone whereas arranged the following compounds in order of increasing boiling points. Now, looking at our compounds, we can see that we have a general structure of our central atom c with four atoms surrounding it. And we can also recognize that all of our compounds are non polar, which means that we have London dispersion forces present. Now relating this to boiling point, we know that our boiling point increases as our inter molecular forces increase. So since we only have London dispersion forces present, we can use the following relationship. We know that London dispersion forces will increase as the molar mass of our compound increases, which will subsequently increase our boiling point. Now, to answer this question, all we need to do is look at the molar masses of each of our compounds and the one with the lowest Mueller mass will have the lowest boiling point. So in this case the lowest one is going to be our methane, followed by our carbon tetra fluoride, followed by our carbon tetrachloride. And lastly with the highest boiling point and the highest smaller mass it will be our carbon tetra bromide. And this is going to be our final answer. Now I hope that made sense. And let us know if you have any questions