PROPERTIES OF WATER

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 Water

04/30/2024 3
• Water is the biological medium on Earth
• All living organisms require water
• Most cells are surrounded by water, and cells
themselves are about 70–95% water

• WHAT IS THE CHEMISTRY OF WATER?

 In a water molecule, each oxygen
atom is partially negative. Each
hydrogen atom is partially positive.
This phenomenon is called charge
separation..

Oxygen does not share electrons well with

other atoms. Oxygen takes more than its share
of electron density, that is why it has a partial
negative charge, HENCE SAID TO BE
MORE ELECTRONEGATIVE. The
hydrogen atoms are stripped of much of their
electron density and so carry a partial positive
charge.
 Polarity allows water molecules to form hydrogen bonds with each
other


Hydrogen
+ bond

Polar covalent
bonds

+
 +

+

•each water molecule can bond to max. of 4 neighbor molecules via. hydrogen
bonds
 Water Has strange properties.

1. Its density decreases when it freezes (ice floats).

2. It has a high boiling point and high heat of
vaporization( a lot of energy is needed to turn 1g of
water to vapour
3. It has high surface tension.
4. Nearly universal solvent
5. It does not dissolve non-polar substances (oil and
water don’t mix).
6. It has high heat capacity(amount of energy needed
to change 1g of water by 1 degre celcious.
Four main properties of water contribute to Earth’s suitability for life

Four of water’s properties that facilitate an environment for life are

1. Adhesive and cohesive behavior
2. Ability to moderate temperature
3. Expansion upon freezing
4. Versatility as a solvent
Property 1: Adhesion and Cohesion of Water Molecules
• Cohesion: an attraction between molecules of the same kind.
– Water is very cohesive.
– Cohesion causes water molecules to be drawn together.
– Produces surface tension.
• Allows some insects and spiders to walk on water.
• Cohesion of water occurs due to hydrogen bonds holding water molecules together
– Cohesion helps the transport of water against gravity in plants
• Adhesion is an attraction between different substances, for example, between
water and plant cell walls
• Surface tension is the elastic like force existing in the surface of a
body, especially a liquid, tending to minimize the area of the surface.
• Surface tension is related to cohesion
• A combination of both adhesion and cohesion contributes to
capillarity
 Recal that;
• The specific heat of a substance is the amount of heat that must be absorbed or lost for
1 g of that substance to change its temperature by 1ºC
• Kinetic energy is the energy of motion
• Heat is a measure of the total amount of kinetic energy due to molecular motion
• Temperature measures the intensity of heat due to the average kinetic energy of
molecules
• Temperature measures average speed of the molecule
• The specific heat of water is 1 cal/g/ºC
• Water resists changing its temperature because of its high specific heat
• It takes “a lot” of heat for water to increase 1oC because of hydrogen bonds
• Heat first must break the hydrogen bonds, AND THEN… the molecules of water can
begin to move!!!
• Therefore water is able to absorb heat, without increasing in temperature, better than
many substances.
• The abundance of water in the cells and tissues of all large multicellular organisms
means that temperature fluctuations within cells are minimized. This feature is of
critical biological importance since the rates of most biochemical reactions are
sensitive to temperature.
As a result:

• Water stabilizes temperatures. = acts as a heat sink

• H20 absorbs and stores MUCH heat from sun & air with slight changes in temperature
• For water to increase in temp. water molecules must be made to move faster… this requires
breaking hydrogen bonds, and THAT absorbs heat.
• Therefore water will change temperature less when it absorbs or looses an amount of heat than
other substances
• Water is also able to retain heat better than many substances (resists cooling)
• For water to decrease in temp. water molecules must be made to move more slowly. This
requires forming hydrogen bonds. The forming of H-bonds gives off heat (hence
counteracting cooling tendencies as heat is lost from liquid water)
• As a result, the air around the cooling water becomes warm
 Heat of vaporization of water is high
• Heat of Vaporization is the amount of energy needed to convert 1.0g of a
substance from a liquid state to a gaseous state to a gaseous state
• Water resists evaporating (vaporizing) because H-bonds must be broken in order for
water to transition from liquid to the gas state.
• Because water has a high heat of vaporization Helps our bodies and our planet to
maintain our temperature within a tolerable range. When we get hot and sweat,
water evaporates from our skin and cools us. Since the evaporation of water
requires a considerable amount of energy, it is very effective in cooling us.
• Evaporation is transformation of a substance from liquid to gas
• As a liquid evaporates, its remaining surface cools, a process called evaporative
cooling
• Evaporative cooling of water helps stabilize temperatures in organisms and bodies
of water
• This contributes to the ability of water to serve as local heat sinks (lakes, ponds),
global heat sinks (oceans)..
 High melting point (0oC)
• Water has an unusually high melting point when compared to
that of other substances close to it like hydrogen sulfide due to
the hydrogen bonding between water molecules.
• In its solid form (ice), each water molecule is subject to four
different hydrogen bonds –
– two hydrogens that are capable of each being a hydrogen
bond donor and an oxygen that is capable of accepting two
hydrogen bonds from neighboring molecules.
 High boiling point (100oC)
• Just like with its melting point, water molecules also have a
higher boiling point than one would expect.
• Likewise, the reason for this is the hydrogen bonding between
neighboring water molecules. Because hydrogen bonding is a
relatively strong intermolecular force, high heat energy is
required to break up the force.

The difference between the boiling point and freezing point of

water is one of the largest ranges of any compound. It is this
span of temperature that mirrors the range of where life can
exist, from bacteria to humans.
 Property 3: Floating of Ice on Liquid Water
• Ice floats in liquid water because hydrogen bonds in ice are more “ordered,” making
ice less dense
– Water reaches its greatest density at -4°C
– If ice sank, all bodies of water would eventually freeze solid, making life
impossible on Earth

Hydrogen bond
Liquid water:
Hydrogen bonds
break and re-form

Ice:
Hydrogen bonds
are stable
 Less dense as a solid than liquid

- Bodies of H2O do not freeze from bottom up

 Property 4: Water- The Solvent of Life
• A solution is a liquid that is a homogeneous mixture of substances
• A solvent is the dissolving agent of a solution
• The solute is the substance that is dissolved
• An aqueous solution is one in which water is the solvent
• Water is a versatile solvent due to its polarity, which allows it to form hydrogen bonds
easily
– When an ionic compound is dissolved in water, each ion is surrounded by a sphere
of water molecules called a hydration shell
 

Na
 



 

Na

 

Cl Cl
 






– When a crystal of table salt is placed in warm water, sodium and chloride ions are
attracted to the polar water molecules.
• Because they are attracted to, or have an affinity for water, Cl- & Na+ are
said to be hydrophillic (water-loving)

Cl
Cl -
Na
- +

Na+

Water Water
 – Ions break away from the crystal and are surrounded by water molecules.

Cl -
Cl -
Na+
Na+
Water
Water
 – The ions gradually become dispersed in the water, forming a solution.

Cl -
Cl -
Na+
Na+
Water
Water
• Water can also dissolve compounds made of nonionic polar molecules
• Even large polar molecules such as proteins can dissolve in water if they have ionic
and polar regions

+

 

+
 Hydrophilic and Hydrophobic Substances

• A hydrophilic substance is one that has an affinity for water

• A hydrophobic substance is one that does not have an affinity for water
– Hydrophobic molecules like lipids/cell membranes tend to repel water because they have
relatively nonpolar bonds like
• A colloid is a stable suspension of fine particles in a liquid