254,915 views
36 votes
36 votes
PLEAAAAAASE HELP IM SO CONFUSED...

What does water’s solubility of polar versus nonpolar substances do in cells? How does water’s solubility of polar versus nonpolar substances affect the ability to dissolve important biochemicals?

User Yariv Adam
by
3.3k points

1 Answer

8 votes
8 votes

Answer:

Generally speaking, water is good at dissolving ions and polar molecules, but poor at dissolving nonpolar molecules. (A polar molecule is one that's neutral, or uncharged, but has an asymmetric internal distribution of charge, leading to partially positive and partially negative regions.)

Water's polarity allows it to dissolve other polar substances very easily. When a polar substance is put in water, the positive ends of its molecules are attracted to the negative ends of the water molecules, and vice versa.

User Chris Nicola
by
3.0k points