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Grade 12Organic Chemistry

Why do the dipole moment of METHYL FLUORIDE is greater than that of METHYL IODIDE despite bond length is greater in methyl iodide????

Profile image of Vishwas Agarwal
9 Years agoGrade 12
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2 Answers

Profile image of Umakant biswal
9 Years ago
THE BOND LENGTH OF c-cl IS GREATER than C-F bond ,that is 1.78 armstrong and 1.38 armstrong respectivly . 
so, the dipole moment of methyl chloride becomes greater than methyl flouride beacuse
dipole moment = charge * distance between the charges 
HOPE IT CLEARS NOW 
Profile image of MANJEET KAUR
5 Years ago
Dipole moment is dependent on two factors charge and bond length.
Fluorine is most electronegative element therefore the charge separation in C-F bond is very high compared to C-I bond as C and I have comparable electronegativity values. Due to higher charges on methyl fluoride it has higher dipole moment than methyl iodide.
Even though, in methyl fluoride the C-F bond length is smaller than C-I bond length. But the charge
factor is dominant over the bond length factor due to very high charge separation of C-F bond.