[Tucker_16]

what does the solubility of a compound in low polarity solvents have to do with its bonding in solid state?

[AWK]

How to ionic net can be destroyed by nonpolar solvent. In no way such a solvent cannot pull out ions ("lack of glue")

[Tucker_16]

i still don't really understand the experiment we did we too ~50mg of SnI4 and it took 98 drops of chloroform to dissolve it and then did the same with toluene and it took about 31 drops, what do these results tell us about the bonding in a solid state for SnI4

[Arkcon]

Well, start with what you know about the structure of toluene and chloroform, and how their physical properties are affected by structure.  Also try to form the structure of SnI₄, and look for similarities or differences to the solvents.  Fortunately, the observations differ widely, given the inaccuracies in the procedure.  Heh heh -- "drops", *chortle*

[Tucker_16]

well i see that both SnI4 are tetrahedral and tuloune is benzene with a methyl group, i just don't know what these solubilities have to do with bonding in the solid state

[Arkcon]

The more similar the bonding between the same molecules in pure form, for both solute and solvent, the better they dissolve in each other.  that is an oversimplification in may regards, for example, that ignores water's hydrogen bonding, but that isn't an issue for you question here.

[Tucker_16]

but in our case doesn't the solvent with the structure most like SnI4 (chloroform), dissolve the SnI4 worse than toluene, considering it took the chloroform 98 drops and toluene only 31 drops?

[AWK]

Solubility depends on a specific interaction between the solute and the solvent. Note, sometimes there are specific interactions not predictable from general rules. Take into account polarity of solvent, possibility of interactions between bonded halogens or pi (electrons) - halogen interactions.

[Arkcon]

Ture enough gross structure does work against you, bul like AWK: said, can you pull other similarities from the structures?  The tetrahedral structures of CHCl₃ and SnI₄, do they have significant differences?