What properties of water make it useful as a solvent? What types of compound can it (i) dissolve and (ii) hydrolyse?

Explanation

A high value of dielectric constants (78.39 C2/Nm2) and dipole moment make water a universal solvent.
Water is able to dissolve most ionic and covalent compounds. Ionic compounds dissolve in water because of the ion-dipole interaction, whereas covalent compounds form hydrogen bonding and dissolve in water.
Water can hydrolyze metallic and non-metallic oxides, hydrides, carbides, phosphides, nitrides and various other salts. During hydrolysis, `H^(+) and OH^(–)` ions of water interact with the reacting molecule.
Some reactions are:
`CaO+H_(2)O to Ca(OH)`
`NaH+H_(2)O to NaOH+H_(2)`
`CaC_(2)+H_(2)O to C_(2)H_(2)+Ca(OH)_(2)`