Are all polar molecules hydrophilic? Hydration numbers of nitro compounds and nitriles in aqueous solution

The hydration numbers of typical aprotic polar substances bearing dipole moments larger than 3 D, such as nitro compounds and nitriles, were precisely determined in aqueous solution using high frequency dielectric relaxation techniques up to a frequency of 50 GHz at 25 °C. The hydration number is one of the most quantitative parameters for determining the hydrophilicity or hydrophobicity of a compound. The hydration numbers of various nitriles, such as acetonitrile, propionitrile and n-butyronitrile bearing cyano groups, were determined to be ca. 0, irrespective of the species of molecule. Moreover, the hydration numbers of various nitro compounds, such as nitromethane, nitroethane and 1-nitropropane, were also evaluated to be ca. 0. These findings clearly reveal that neither cyano nor nitro functional groups form strong hydrogen bonds to water molecules. Consequently, neither nitro compounds nor nitriles are hydrophilic, despite their high polarities due to their large dipole moments. Rather, these compounds are "hydroneutral," with hydrophilicities intermediate between those of hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules. The molecular motions of the examined highly polar molecules in aqueous solution were well described with single Debye-type rotational relaxation modes without strong interactions between the solute and water molecules, but with relatively strong interactions between the polar solute molecules due to the Kirkwood factor being less than unity. This small Kirkwood factor indicated that both nitro and cyano groups have a tendency to align in an anti-parallel intermolecular configuration due to their strong dipole-dipole interactions as a result of their dipole moments greater than 3 D.