The Structure of Water
29 April 2008, 09:50
Categories: superhydrophobicphilic
Up to 2004, water was often depicted with each individual H2O molecule linked to four of its neighbors (as shown at image left); then new results from a team at Stanford University suggested most water molecules are linked strongly to only two others. This implies, however, that liquid water molecules may be arranged in rings (image middle) or chains (image right) that are clustered together by additional, weaker hydrogen bonds.
At the atomic scale, liquid water forms a dynamic, three-dimensional network, with so-called hydrogen bonds constantly forming and breaking between the V-shaped H2O molecules. At any given moment, each oxygen atom is typically surrounded by four hydrogens—two close ones from its own molecule, and two further away on nearby molecules. At the same time, within each molecule, the oxygen has a bit more negative charge, and the hydrogens are a bit more positive; this charge separation is called a dipole.
The polar nature of water molecules, where one region of the molecule is more negative and the other more positive, allows them to bond to each other in groups and is associated with the high surface tension of water. If we were to draw a V-shaped representation of an H2O molecule, with the two top points of the V located at the center of each hydrogen atoms and the bottom point at the center of the oxygen atom, the angle between the two line segments of the V would be about 105º.
Posted by: The Editors
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