When applied to solvents, this rather ill-defined term covers their overall
solvation capability (
solvationpower) for solutes (i.e. in chemical equilibria: reactants and products; in reaction rates:
reactants and
activated complex;
in light absorptions: ions or molecules in the ground and
excited state), which in turn depends on the action of all possible, nonspecific and specific,
intermolecular interactions between solute ions or molecules and solvent molecules, excluding such
interactions leading to definite chemical alterations of the ions or molecules of
the solute. Occasionally, the term solvent polarity is restricted to nonspecific solute/solvent
interactions only (i.e. to
van der Waals forces).
Source:
PAC, 1994, 66, 1077
(Glossary of terms used in physical organic chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 1994))
on page 1151
Cite as:
IUPAC. Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book"). Compiled by
A. D. McNaught and A. Wilkinson. Blackwell Scientific Publications, Oxford (1997).
XML on-line corrected version: http://goldbook.iupac.org (2006-) created by M. Nic,
J. Jirat, B. Kosata; updates compiled by A. Jenkins. ISBN 0-9678550-9-8.
https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.
parameter,
Grunwald–Winstein equation,
ionizing power,
Kamlet–Taft solvent parameters,
van der Waals forces,
Z-value
