Question

Give a reason why water is considered as a universal solvent and alkali is not.

Answer 1

Hint: As we know that water is a neutral solution having pH value of approximately seven. Alkali is basic in nature having pH more than seven. Many substances can be easily dissolved in water than in any acidic or basic medium. Alkali medium can be sodium hydroxide, sodium hydrogen carbonate and many others.

Complete answer:
We must have to know that water is capable of dissolving a variety of different substances, which is why it is such a good solvent. And, water is called the "universal solvent" because it dissolves more substances than any other liquid. This is important to every living thing on earth. It means that wherever water goes, either through the ground or through our bodies, it takes along valuable chemicals, minerals, and nutrients.
It is water's chemical composition and physical attributes that make it such an excellent solvent. Water molecules have a polar arrangement of the oxygen and hydrogen atoms—one side (hydrogen) has a positive electrical charge and the other side (oxygen) has a negative charge. This allows the water molecule to become attracted to many other different types of molecules. Water can become so heavily attracted to a different molecule, like salt (\[NaCl\]) that it can disrupt the attractive forces that hold the sodium and chloride in the salt molecule together and, thus, dissolve it.

Note:
We must have to know that water is a polar molecule and it is easily polarizable, but
more importantly, the liquid has a high dielectric constant, which means that ions can be solvated, that stabilizes them by reducing the force of attraction between them. So the energy of interaction between water molecules and ions is often sufficient to overcome the energy of interaction between the ions in the solid.