Solubility of Alkanes in Water

When a molecular substance dissolves in water, the following must occur:

• break the intermolecular forces within the substance. In the case of the alkanes, these are the Van der Waals dispersion forces.
• break the intermolecular forces in the water so that the substance can fit between the water molecules. In water, the primary intermolecular attractions are hydrogen bonds.

Breaking either of these attractions requires energy, although the amount of energy to break the Van der Waals dispersion forces in something like methane is relatively negligible; this is not true of the hydrogen bonds in water.

As something of a simplification, a substance will dissolve if there is enough energy released when new bonds are made between the substance and the water to compensate for what is used in breaking the original attractions. The only new attractions between the alkane and the water molecules are Van der Waals forces. These forces do not release a sufficient amount of energy to compensate for the energy required to break the hydrogen bonds in water. The alkane does not dissolve.