PPT Slide
- An electric field can distort an electron cloud, drawing electron density toward a positive charge or repelling it from a negative one.
- The field induces a distortion in the cloud.
- For nonpolar molecules, the distortion causes a temporary dipole moment; in polar molecules it enhances the dipole moment already present.
- The ease with which a particleís electron cloud can be distorted is called its polarizability.
- Polarizability increases as size increases because larger electron clouds are more easily distorted.
- Cations are less polarizable than their parent atom, whereas anions are more polarizable.
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