Intermolecular Forces

[MortellarPreMed]

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How do you determine which molecules have stronger intermolecular forces in comparriosn to each other.

For example:

CO2 or OCS

SeO2 or SO2

An explanation as to why which one would have a stronger intermolecular forces would be much appreciated.

 

[Beargryllz]

If they have some charge, that can be really attractive

If they can hydrogen bond, that can be pretty attractive

Otherwise I end up guesstimating electronegativity and try to imagine which atom ends up with all the electron density for some polarity. Then I try to think about how these polar molecules could attract each other.

So, like, with O=C=O you would think that there isn't really any polarity, but with O=C=S there would have to be because oxygen is so electronegative in comparison to those other two atoms. So I'm pretty sure O=C=S would have more intermolecular attraction

I'm usually wrong, but I think this is correct