Solvent
Solvation is the physico-chemical phenomenon observed when dissolving a chemical compound in a solvent. When introducing a chemical species initially in the solid, liquid or gaseous state into a solvent, the atoms, ions or molecules of the chemical species disperse in the solution and interact with the solvent molecules. This interaction is called solvation. It is of different nature depending on the solute and the solvent and covers phenomena as different as ion-dipole interactions, hydrogen bonds or van der Waals bonds. When the solute is in condensed phase, the solvation enters the energy balance which involves the separation of molecules or ions in the solute before its dispersion in the solvent. The solute dissolves only if the solute-solvent interactions compensate for the loss of the solute-solute and solvent-solvent interactions due to the dissolution: ▪ either by chemical reaction; ▪ or by weakening the connections sufficiently.