Question

The CO2 molecule is a dipole. The statement is ______

(a) True

(b) False

This question was posed to me in an internship interview.

Question is from Electric Dipole in section Charges and Fields of Physics – Class 12

Answer 1

The correct answer is (a) True

To elaborate: If we observe the structure of the CO2 molecule, we will find that the two C=O bonds are not in a straight line due to the presence of lone pair of electron of C atom. Therefore the dipole moments of the two C=O bonds don’t cancel out each other and hence there is a net dipole moment present in case of CO2 molecule. It means the center of positive and negative charge does not coincide in the case of polar molecules.