Some chemists describe the dissolution of NaCl(s) in water as occupying a “gray area” between physical and chemical change. Which statement provides the best rationale for treating the process as having a chemical component?
a) The ions become surrounded by water molecules but no bonds are broken, so the process is purely physical.
b) Water merely acts as a medium; ion–dipole attractions are too weak to count as bond formation, so dissolution remains a physical change.
c) Ionic bonds between Na+ and Cl− ions are disrupted while ion–dipole attractions with water molecules are formed, indicating bond-breaking at the particulate level.
d) No electrons are transferred or shared during dissolving, so the process cannot be classified as chemical.