Prof. Shakhashiri www.scifun.org General Chemistry
WATER
Water covers about 70% of Earth’s surface, makes up about 70% of your mass, and is essential for life. This photograph of planet Earth, taken by the Apollo 17 crew as they traveled toward the moon on December 7, 1972, shows an area of the planet from the Mediterranean Sea to Antarctica. Water is visible in this photograph as the Atlantic, Indian and Southern (or Antarctic) Oceans, the south polar icecap, and as heavy cloud cover in the southern hemisphere and scattered along the equator.
Water is the only substance that exists naturally on Earth in all three physical states of matter—gas, liquid, and solid—and
it is always on the move among them. The Earth has oceans of liquid water and polar regions covered by solid water. Energy from the sun is absorbed by liquid water in oceans, lakes, and rivers and gains enough energy for some of it to evaporate and enter the atmosphere as an invisible gas, water vapor. As the water vapor rises in the atmosphere it cools and condenses into tiny liquid droplets that scatter light and become visible as clouds. Under the proper conditions, these droplets further combine and become heavy enough to precipitate (fall out) as drops of liquid or, or if the air is cold enough, flakes of solid, thus returning to the surface of the Earth to continue this cycle of water between its condensed and vapor phases. (Visit http://www.eoearth.org/article/Hydrologic_cycle for more information on the Hydrologic Cycle.)
Water in all three states makes a large contribution to the planet’s climate. Water vapor is a greenhouse gas that traps energy radiated from the surface of the planet and helps to keep the planet warm enough to sustain the complex life that has evolved in this environment. Water vapor is responsible for more than half the Earth’s greenhouse gas warming. On the other hand, clouds and ice fields on the surface reflect a good deal of the radiation from the sun, so this radiation does not reach the surface and warm it. The reflectivity of clouds and ice has a cooling effect on the planet. However, where the earth’s surface has been heated by solar radiation, clouds help trap energy radiated from the heated surface and thus have a warming effect as well. Variations in the amount and form of water in the atmosphere have a complex relationship to our climate that is difficult to model and predict.
Pure water is colorless, odorless, and tasteless and so common that you probably never think about how unique it is and how essential to life. Most plants and animals contain more than 60% water by volume. Without water, life would not have evolved on Earth, and it is the presence of water on Mars and some moons of Jupiter and Saturn that causes us to speculate about past or present life there as well.
Water has a number of unique chemical and physical properties that make it essential for life. One such property is familiar to everyone: solid water floats on liquid water. Almost all liquids contract when they get colder and reach a maximum density when they solidify. Water is different. As water cools, it contracts until it reaches 4 C, then it expands until it freezes at 0 C. Ice is less dense than water which allows ice cubes to float in a soft drink, icebergs to float in the ocean, and ponds and lakes to freeze from the top down so that aquatic plants and animals can survive in the unfrozen liquid below.
Water molecules have a simple structure: two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom – H2O. This simple structure is responsible for water’s unique properties. The bond between each hydrogen atom and the oxygen atom results from a pair of electrons shared between the two atoms. In water, the electrons in the shared pair are not shared equally between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The oxygen atom has a greater affinity for electrons than does the hydrogen atom, and the electrons in the O–H bond are more attracted to oxygen. Because electrons have a negative charge, the unequal sharing in the O–H bond results in oxygen acquiring a partial negative charge
( −) and hydrogen a partial positive charge ( +). The H–O–H bond angle in water is 104.5 , which means that the molecule has a bent shape.
This bent geometry and the accumulation of electrons on the oxygen side of the molecule cause the water molecule to have a negative charge on one side, the oxygen side, and a positive charge on the other side, the hydrogen side. Molecules with negative regions and positive regions are called polar molecules. Water molecules are polar molecules.
Polar molecules are attracted to each other. The attraction results from the negative region of one molecule, the oxygen atom, being drawn to the positive region of another molecule, the hydrogen atom. Opposites attract! The attractions between water molecules are particularly strong. Oxygen atoms have a very great affinity for electrons, and so the