Question

What is the property of water that makes it the universal solvent?

Answer 1

Hint: To solve this question we first need to know what is a solvent. A solvent is a substance that forms a solution upon dissolving a solute. Solvent can be gaseous, liquid, solid, or supercritical fluid. Usually, a solvent is a liquid.

Complete answer:
The ability of a substance (or the solute) to dissolve in a liquid (or a solvent) to form a solution is known as solubility.
The structure of water molecules is as follows

Now, since in water the hydrogen atom is directly attached to an oxygen atom, it forms a polar arrangement as the oxygen atoms form a negative charge and the hydrogen atom forms a positive charge due to the difference in electronegativities of hydrogen and oxygen.
Due to this polarity, water molecules can attract different molecules like sodium chloride (NaCl) and dissolve them by breaking the attractive forces between Na and Cl.
This is why water dissolves a solute more than any other solvent hence it is deemed as a universal solvent.
Water dissolves solutes to form an aqueous solution.

Note:
Water is a protic solvent.
A protic solvent is the one when there is a hydrogen atom bonded to either a
- Nitrogen atom as amine group ($-N{{R}_{3}}$),
- Oxygen atom as hydroxyl group (-OH), or
- Fluoride atom as hydrogen fluoride group (HF)
In these solvents, the hydrogen atom is a liable ${{H}^{+}}$ ion. Solutes can easily gain protons (${{H}^{+}}$) from the molecules of these solvents through hydrogen bonding.
Now, solvents that do not donate ${{H}^{+}}$ or accept protons to the solute are known as polar aprotic solvents. For example, cyclohexane, toluene, etc. They are chemically inert and usually have huge dipole moments and low dielectric constant.