Qualitative understanding of partition preferences

Introduction
Cavity model
Rules for partitioning
The cavity model in quantitative terms

Selftest
Problems
Intermolecular interactions in every day life
FAQ

The cavity model in quantitative terms

The animation below gives you a more quantitative idea about how different interaction energies contribute to the overall partitioning constant. These are only rough calculations but they give a good idea of the absolute strength of various interactions.
The partitioning between two liquid phases is typically dominated by H-bond interactions. But it would be erroneous to conclude from this that van der Waals interactions are weak compared to H-bond interactions. They are in fact much stronger for almost all molecules but in liquid/liquid partitioning these contributions largely cancel and thus do not become "visible". Therefore, the animation only shows air/solvent partitioning. Of course, you can easily deduce liquid/liquid partition data from combining the data from the two air/liquid partition systems for the respective  liquids.
More details on the quantitative estimation of partition constants are given in the next chapter.

 

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