Why salts dissolve in water

Both the sodium and the chlorine ions now have completely filled shells and are therefore stable. This is a good example of an atom that naturally has an unequal number of electron and protons. The net positive sodium ion is now attracted to the net negative chlorine ion and this attraction forms what we call an "ionic bond". But, in reality, we don't have just one sodium ion sticking to ion chlorine ion. Instead, a lattice of many sodium ions ionically bonds to a lattice of chlorine ions, and we end up with a crystalline solid.

Each sodium ion in the crystalline lattice of table salt is bound to the 6 nearest chlorine ions, and the same goes for each chlorine ion. The atoms in table salt are therefore already in the ionized state. Adding water does not ionize the atoms in salt, because they are already ionized.

Instead, the water molecules stick to the already formed ions in the salt. This type of attraction between fully charged components is called an ionic bond or a salt bridge. Ionic bonds within a salt crystal may be quite strong. However, if a crystal of salt is dissolved in water, each of the individual ions becomes surrounded by water molecules, which inhibit oppositely charged ions from approaching one another closely enough to form ionic bonds.

The charged ends of the water molecules are so strongly attracted to the charged ions in the salt crystal that the water destroys the solid lattice structure of the salt and each sodium and chlorine ion becomes surrounded by a layer of sticky water molecules.

In chemistry, we say the salt has been dissolved by the water. Michael Macrie-Shuck, Vicente Talanquer. Journal of Chemical Education , 97 12 , Christopher Smith. Answers from Quantitative Experimental Evidence. Journal of Chemical Education , 97 10 , Abell, Stacey Lowery Bretz.

Journal of Chemical Education , 96 9 , Journal of Chemical Education , 96 3 , Roche Allred , Anthony J. Farias , Alex T. Kararo , Kristin N. Parent , Rebecca L. Matz , Sonia M. Students' use of chemistry core ideas to explain the structure and stability of DNA. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education , 49 1 , Employees in the News.

Emergency Management. Survey Manual. This diagram shows the positive and negative parts of a water molecule. It also depicts how a charge, such as on an ion Na or Cl, for example can interact with a water molecule. At the molecular level, salt dissolves in water due to electrical charges and due to the fact that both water and salt compounds are polar, with positive and negative charges on opposite sides in the molecule.

The bonds in salt compounds are called ionic because they both have an electrical charge—the chloride ion is negatively charged and the sodium ion is positively charged.