Question

Why are alkyl halides insoluble in water?

Answer 1

Hint: Alkyl halide also known by the name haloalkanes or halogenoalkanes which are generally those chemical compounds which are often derived from alkanes which contain one or more halogens. These are formed by the replacement of hydrogen atoms in an aliphatic hydrocarbon by any halogen atom.

Complete answer:
Alkyl halides are formed by the replacement of hydrogen atoms by halogen atoms i.e. fluoride, chloride, bromide and iodide. Grignard reagent is one of the important reagents used in organic chemistry and it is an organometallic compound. These compounds have the ability to form new carbon-carbon bonds and have strong nucleophilic character.
Alkyl halides contain polar bonds in it but are still termed as insoluble in water. This can be explained on the basis of the reason that when we dissolve a haloalkane in water then it needs an energy to overcome the attraction between the water molecules. Energy released during this process is less when new attractions are set up between the haloalkane and the water molecules as they are not as strong as the original hydrogen bonds present in water. Due to this reason the solubility of haloalkanes in water is very low.
In this way we can explain that alkyl halides are not soluble in water.

Note:
Alkyl halides are colorless in nature when they exist in pure form. But exceptional cases are seen in bromide and iodide which develop color when these are exposed to light and many volatile halogen compounds have a sweet smell like ethers.