The only interactions between solute and solvent, are hydrogen
bonds and/or dipole-dipole interactions and/or van der Waals
interactions and/or ion-dipole interactions (for ionic compounds in
polar solvents). Hence, different compounds will have different
solubilities in different solvents (polar or non-polar, protic or
aprotic, etc).
Notice that all of these do NOT involve any chemical reactions.
Hence, it is a physical, rather than chemical, process.
PS :
Some students erroneously think that metals or metal carbonates
'dissolve' in acids. That is incorrect. Rather, they REACT
(chemically) with acids to produce soluble products.
PPS :
Do you guys ('A' and 'O' level students, and polytechnic
students, doing Chemistry) understand what is the difference
between these two equations?
CO2(g) + aq ---> ???
CO2(g) + H2O(l) ---> ???
