Question

Why are Lithium compounds soluble in organic solvent?

Answer 1

Hint: Organic compounds are mostly non-polar in nature. Also the organic compound is the covalent compound which means the atoms are attached to each other through the covalent bonding. From the concept of like dissolves we get to know that lithium must show covalent nature with others to get dissolved easily in the organic solvent.

Complete answer:
Lithium is an alkali metal which is supposed to form an ionic compound with other atoms as other members of its family do like potassium and sodium. But it shows some covalent nature due to which it gets easily dissolved in the organic compounds which are covalent in nature. Since we know that the like dissolves like so a nonpolar solvent must dissolve non polar compounds. This is explained with the help of the polarizing power of the atoms. The concept of polarizing power is well explained by the Fazan Rule. In the compound like $ LiCl $ due to the high polarising power of the lithium and the high polarizability of the chloride ion, $ LiCl $ becomes covalent in nature. The high polarising power here is due to the very small size of the lithium atom in comparison to the chloride ion. Thus it polarised the chloride ion and hence became the covalent nature. Therefore we can say that the lithium compounds are soluble inorganic solvent because of being covalent in nature.

Note:
Every compound is ionic as well as covalent in nature. The more character it shows then it's called then by that name. If a compound shows greater ionic character then it is called an ionic compound. The difference in the size is also one of the major causes of polarisation.