How is it that when a salt sample dissolves in water, the delta s for the process is positive?

-

Water is highly ordered. In water each oxygen atom is connected to others around it through hydrogen bonding via bridging hydrogen atoms. When a salt like NaCl is dissolved, some of these Hydrogen bonds break.

When a salt like NaCl dissolves in water, the NaCl breaks in to ions Na+ and Cl-.

The water molecules now surround these ions.

The slightly negative oxygen end of water molecule gets near the Na+, while the slightly positive Hydrogen of water molecule gets near the Cl-.

So before salt sample dissolve, the water molecules were highly ordered due to hydrogen bonding. Now after salt dissolve there is a decrease in order and thus an increase in disorder of the water molecules.

Due to increase in disorder, entropy which is a measure of disorder increases. Since entropy increases, delta S for the process is positive.