Examples of this type include carbonatertrachloride, saturated hydrocarbons, fluorocarbons etc. These solvents are not of much interest to a chemist because of their inertness.

Although a large number of non-aqueous solvents have been investigated in detail, the discussion in this chapter will be confined only to a few representative solvents: liquide ammonia (a basic protonic solvent), liquid HF and H₂SO₄ (strongly acidic protonic solvents) and liquid sulphur dioxide (a non-protonic solvent).

There are a number of physical properties of a solvent that are of great importance in determining its behavior and in fact its usefulness as a solvent. These are :

1.    The temperature range over which it is a liquid, i.e. liquid range
2.    Dielectric constant
3.    Donor and acceptor properties, i.e., its Lewis acid base behavior
4.    Extent of self-dissociation
5.    Heat of fusion and vaporization
6.    Viscosity and density.

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