WATER CHEMISTRY

WATER STRUCTURAL MOLECULE

Water consist of 2 hydrogen and 1 oxygen atom.

Out of eight electrons, only four are involved in electron pair formation with two
hydoren atoms.
A strong attractive force is exerted by oxygen on the remaining four electrons, making
hydrogen atoms electropositive.
The geometrical shape of water molecule is that of a tetrahedron in which the oxygen
atom is in the center and the two hydrogens occupy two of the corners.

HYDROGEN BOND IN WATER MOLECULE

Water molecules which is the polar molecules, have a weak, partial negative charge at
one region of the molecule (the oxygen atom in water) and a partial positive charge
elsewhere (the hydrogen atoms in water).
Thus when water molecules are close together, their positive and negative regions are
attracted to the oppositely-charged regions of nearby molecules.

The force of attraction, shown here as a dotted line, is called a hydrogen bond. Each
water molecule is hydrogen bonded to four others.
The hydrogen bonds that form between water molecules account for some of the
essential and unique properties of water.
1. The attraction created by hydrogen bonds keeps water liquid over a wider
range of temperature than is found for any other molecule its size.
2. The energy required to break multiple hydrogen bonds causes water to have a
high heat of vaporization; that is, a large amount of energy is needed to
convert liquid water, where the molecules are attracted through their hydrogen
bonds, to water vapour, where they are not.

THERMAL AND SOLVENT PROPERTIES IN WATER.

WATER AS UNIVERSAL SOLVENT

Water forms an excellent solvent system having the capacity to solubilize a large
number of organic and inorganic compounds.
Compounds having OH, NH2, COOH and C=O groups are highly soluble in water
because of their ability to form hydrogen bonds with the oxygen atom.
Water also possesses strong dielectric properties and for this reason it is a good
solvent for salts dissociable into ions.

THERMAL PROPERTIES

Most solids and liquids expand with rising temperature.

Water, the most common and most important liquid on Earth, has a limitation on this
expansion.
Ice water that is at a temperature of 0C or 32F will contract when it is heated.
This contraction continues until after an increase beyond 4C or 39.2F.
Then water that continues to be heated will finally begin to expand like other liquids
until it reaches a gaseous state.
At 4C water has its smallest volume and also its greatest density.
Water that is below 0C has a larger volume and a smaller density.
Therefore the reason why ice floats in your cup of soda is because ice is less dense or
weighs less than water.
This is also the reason why your water pipes may burst in the winter if you are not
careful - the water inside increases in volume and weight as it cools from 4C to 0C.

IONIZATION OF WATER

A unique property of water is its ability to ionize or undergo dissociation.

The hydrogen atom is very light and is held tightly by the oxygen atom.
Because of its mobility and small mass, it has a tendency to dissociate in the manner
of:
H2O H+ + OH-

This is the conventional method to show dissociation of water, but in actual practice
the hydrogen atom of one water molecule after dissociation hops over to the
neighboring water molecule to form a positively charged hydronium (H3O) ions,
leaving behind a negatively charged hydroxyl group (OH-)
H2O OH- + H+

H2O H3O+ (hydronium ion)

OR

H2O + H2O H3O+ + OH-

Electrical conductivity measurements show that one liter of water at 25C contains
1.0X10-7 moles of H3O+ ions and the same amount of OH- ions.
The reason why a hydronium ion is formed is explained by the fact that protons do not
occur as free ions in water, while the hydronium ion has a high electrical mobility.
It is possible to calculate the equilibrium constant of dissociation of water from the
equation :

H2O H+] + [OH-]

Keq = [H+] + [OH-]

[H2O]

When the ions in brackets [ ] represent the concentration in moles per liter.
In pure water the H+ =OH- 1.0X10-7, and the ion product of water, Kw = [H+] [OH-] at
25C is 1.0X10-14