Chemistry Report: Water Molecule, Structure, and Properties Analysis

This chemistry report provides a detailed analysis of the water molecule, focusing on its fundamental chemical and physical properties. The report begins with an introduction to water, emphasizing its importance and prevalence. It then delves into the concept of covalent bonding, explaining how it applies to the formation of water molecules, including the sharing of electrons between hydrogen and oxygen atoms. The report also explores secondary interactions, specifically hydrogen bonding, illustrating how the polarity of water molecules leads to these crucial interactions. Furthermore, the report examines the physical properties of water, such as its boiling point and conductivity, connecting these properties to its molecular structure and bonding characteristics. Finally, the report highlights other interesting facts about water, such as its anomalous expansion upon freezing, providing a comprehensive overview of this essential molecule. The report includes relevant diagrams and references to support its claims, adhering to the specified report structure and word count requirements.

WATER MOLECULE 1
Water Molecule
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WATER MOLECULE 2
Introduction
Water is a compound of hydrogen and oxygen in a ratio of 2 to 1. It is the most abundant
naturally occurring liquid and occupies about 75% of the total earth surface. It is a polar
molecule characterized by hydrogen bond with unique chemical and physical properties that
makes it popular for the study of both physical and chemical properties of compounds (Bourne,
2018). Water is generally referred to as a universal solvent because of its ability to dissolve most
chemicals. Unlike non-polar solvent such as methyl benzene, water only dissolves polar
compounds because it is non polar. Water is also essential to human life. Because of its physical
and chemical properties, can be used to illustrate covalent bonding, relationship between
physical characteristics of a compound and its structure, secondary interaction and unique
characteristics of compounds.
Covalent bonding in water
. A covalent bond is bond that is formed when chemically unstable atoms share equal
number of electrons to gain a chemical stability (either octet or duplet depending on the atomic
number of electrons). Unlike dative bonds where one or more set of paired electrons are
contributed by a one specie, in covalent bonds the paired electrons are equally contributed by the
combining atoms (Held, Fuchs, & Studer, 2017). Water is made of Hydrogen and oxygen whose
atomic numbers are 1 and 8 respectively. To be stable, hydrogen has to acquire 1 one electron to
achieve the duplet state while oxygen requires 2 electrons to achieve the octet state. Oxygen thus
shares 2 electrons, 1 each with two hydrogen atom to achieve an electronic configuration of 2.8
while each hydrogen achieves a configuration of 2 as shown in the diagram. This concept forms
the basis of covalent bonding.
In the Lewis diagram of covalent bond formation in water above, the ‘dots' represent
electrons from hydrogen while the cross represents electrons from oxygen (Nizamuddin et al,
2019, p.1958)
Secondary interaction

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Secondary interactions involve those chemical bonding other than covalent, ionic, and
metallic bond (Kim et al, 2019, 159). The trio form chemical bonding/interactions and are
generally referred as primary bonding. Those that form weaker interaction or bonding, are
referred to as secondary interaction, usually hydrogen bonding. Water molecules show this type
of interaction, since the two covalent bonding in water, 2O-H the hydrogen atom has a low
charge number of 1 as compared to that of oxygen which is 8. This makes the nucleus of oxygen
be more charged than that of hydrogen hence more electronegative compared to the positively
charged nucleus of hydrogen. This makes the elections in hydrogen outermost shell be less
shielded by the positive nucleus than it is in oxygen (Pendás, Casals‐Sainz, & Francisco, 2018)
The O-H bonding formed in water therefore has both the positive end and the negative end
resulting to a dipole moment formation. The oxygen hydrogen bonding arranges themselves in
such a way that the positive end of hydrogen get pointed to the negative end of the oxygen
resulting the formation of secondary interactions (hydrogen bonding) as shown below.
Polarity in water
Water is said to be polar because oxygen being more electronegative than hydrogen, it
tends to attract the bonding electrons to itself than hydrogen thus gaining a partial negative
charge and hydrogen gaining a positive charge creating a dipole moment hence polarized
(Pettersson, Henchman, & Nilsson, 2016).

WATER MOLECULE 4
Physical properties
For simple molecular structure (hydrogen bonds van der waal) are relatively weaker forces. The
compounds with thus structure thus have relatively lower melting and boiling points compared to
those with metallic and giant atomic structures. Unlike compounds with metallic and ionic
structures which have free electrons and mobile ions respectively for electrical and heat
conduction, molecular compounds such water are poor conductors of both heat and electricity.
Because of molecular nature, water has a boiling point of 100 oc which is higher than other
compounds such methyl benzene This is due to strong hydrogen bonding between two water
molecules as compared to the weak van der waal forces of attraction in the methylbenzene. The
higher boiling point of 100 oc compared to other simple molecular structures such as hydrogen
gas is due to the strong hydrogen bonding between two water molecules (Sessler et al., 2017).
Other interesting facts about water.
Unlike other compounds and materials that expand upon increase in temperature and
contract on temperature decrease, water experiences anomalous expansion where an increase in
where it expands when temperature decrease from 4oC to 0oC (Stefanutti et al., 2019). The
density of water lessens at it freezes because its molecules opens structures when in solid forms

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Bibliography
Bourne, S.A., 2018. Intermolecular interactions in crystals: fundamentals of crystal engineering.
Held, P.A., Fuchs, H. and Studer, A., 2017. Covalent‐Bond Formation via On‐Surface
Chemistry. Chemistry–A European Journal, 23(25), pp.5874-5892
Pendás, A.M., Casals‐Sainz, J.L. and Francisco, E., 2019. On Electrostatics, Covalency, and
Chemical Dashes: Physical Interactions versus Chemical Bonds. Chemistry–A European
Journal, 25(1), pp.309-314.
Pettersson, Lars Gunnar Moody, Richard Humfry Henchman, and Anders Nilsson. "Water The
Most Anomalous Liquid." (2016): 7459-7462.
Sessler, C.D., Rahm, M., Becker, S., Goldberg, J.M., Wang, F. and Lippard, S.J., 2017. CF2H, a
hydrogen bond donor. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 139(27), pp.9325-9332.
Stefanutti, E., Bove, L.E., Lelong, G., Ricci, M.A., Soper, A.K. and Bruni, F., 2019. Ice
crystallization observed in highly supercooled confined water. Physical Chemistry Chemical
Physics, 21(9), pp.4931-4938.