Is chloride a hydrophobic molecule?

Question

Is chloride a hydrophobic molecule?

Answer 1

yes, yes it is.

Answer 2

No. Chloride is a hydrophilic molecue.

When a dry crystal of a salt, such as sodium chloride, is dissolved in an aqueous medium. Within the dry crystal, the ionic bonds between the positive sodium ions and negative chloride ions are very strong, and much energy would be required to pull these ions away from each other. When the crystal is put into water, however, the attraction of the electronegative oxygen end of the water molecules for the positively charged sodium ions and the similar attraction of the electropositive hydrogen ends of the water molecules for the negatively charged chloride ions are greater than the mutual attraction between the sodium and chloride ions. In water, then, the ionic bonds are broken with extreme ease, because of the competitive attraction of the water molecules for the ions. Consequently, the sodium and chloride ions dissociate, and each becomes surrounded by a hydration sphere of regularly arranged water molecules that are attracted to it (Fig. 1). Such an ion is said to be hydrated

Water is also an excellent solvent for nonionic, polar molecules. Indeed, such molecules are said to be hydrophilic (“water-loving”). The solubility of such molecules—such as ethyl alcohol, for instance, arises from an electrostatic attraction between the charged portions of the solute molecules and the oppositely charged parts of the water molecules. This occurs especially when the molecule has an oxygen with a hydrogen attached to it (-OH). As in water molecules, the hydrogen in such a group has a slight positive charge and is therefore attracted by the negatively charged oxygen end of a nearby water molecule, with the result that a hydrogen bond is formed. The dissolved (solute) molecules and the water molecules thus become linked to one another.

In short, substances dissolve in water if their molecules can interact with the polar water molecules. The old adage “like dissolves like” is useful in determining a substance’s solubility in a particular solvent. Water, because it is polar, can interact with other polar or charged substances, and such substances will readily dissolve in water (Fig. 2). Substances that are electrically neutral and nonpolar, however, dissolve poorly in water. They show no tendency to interact electrostatically with water and, indeed, are repulsed by it. When a hydrophobic substance such as oil is stirred into water, it will soon begin to separate out, because the water molecules tend slowly to reestablish the hydrogen bonds broken by the physical intrusion of the insoluble material. In a very real sense, the water “pushes” the nonpolar molecules together, and the nonpolar