Final answer:
Although chlorine is highly electronegative and C-Cl bonds are polar, CCl4 is nonpolar due to its symmetrical tetrahedral geometry, which causes the dipoles of the individual bonds to cancel out.
Step-by-step explanation:
Chlorine is indeed a highly electronegative atom, as mentioned. Despite this, the molecule CCl4 is nonpolar. This is because CCl4 has a symmetrical tetrahedral geometry wherein the four chlorine atoms are arranged symmetrically around the central carbon atom. Each C-Cl bond is polar due to the difference in electronegativity between carbon (2.5) and chlorine (3.16), but the arrangement of these dipoles is such that they cancel each other out, resulting in a molecule with no overall dipole moment.
It's important to note that while individual C-Cl bonds are polar, the molecule as a whole is nonpolar. This is because in a tetrahedral arrangement, the vectors representing the bond dipoles in CCl4 point in opposite directions and have equal magnitude, leading to their cancellation.