Is caffeine soluble in a nonpolar solvent? why?
Caffeine(C8H10N4O2) common name trimethylxanthene naturally produced by several plants such as coffee beans, cocoa beans, tea etc. Its an alkaloid containing nitrogen and properties of an alkali.Solubility of a substance in solvents depend upon how efficiently the solvent molecule break interactions between the solute and solvent molecule.This is of course broad generalization that water is highly polar molecule while the caffeine is partially polar molecule has a significant hydrophobic portion. In water caffeine makes hydrogen bonds invoving atoms with free electron pair (N & O) so caffiene is readily dissolve in nonpolar solvent (cholroform and other organic solvents)instead of water.
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