Why are most organic molecules non-polar?

1 Answer
Ernest Z. · Media Owl
May 14, 2015

Most hydrocarbons are nonpolar, because "C-H" bonds are nonpolar.

But there are many more organic compounds that contain functional groups like "Cl", "OH", "COOH", "C≡N", "NH"_2, "NO"_2, etc.

Atoms like "O", "N", and "Cl" are all more electronegative than "C", so they all have polar bonds.

![Non-polar and polar molecules from http://universe-review.ca](https://universe-review.ca/I12-22-polar.jpg)

Unless the bond dipoles cancel, the molecules will be polar as well.

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