BIOLOGY FORM 6 CHEMISTRY OF WATER CIKGU YUGEN

Chemistry of Water 1. Water accounts for about 80% of the weight of an average active cell. 2. The human body is about 70% water by weight. 3. The cells of terrestrial organisms are bathed in body fluids composed largely of water. 4. Through plat metabolism, water is main source of i) ii) iii) Hydrogen atom Oxygen atom electron

5. Water also in solvent for most biological reactions and a reactant or product in many chemical reactions.

Properties of Water

1. There are about 5 important properties of water that have become an important factor in the evolution of living things.

a) Water molecules are polar - Water has a simple atomic structure. It consist of 2 hydrogen ions bound with 1 oxygen ion by 2 single covalent bonds.

- The greater electronegative properties of oxygen makes the water molecule more polar - The most stable arrangement of these charges is a tetrahedron in which the 2 negative and 2 positive charged are approximately equidistant from one another. - The oxygen atom that lies at the center of the tetrahedron, the hydrogen atoms occupy 2 of the apexes and the partial negative charges occupy the other 2 apexes. - This result in bond angle of 104.50 between the 2 covalent bond. in the normal tetrahedron the bond angles would be 109 0 but in water the - charged occupy more space than the hydrogen atoms and therefore they compress the oxygen-hydrogen bond angle slightly

- The hydrogen atom of 1 water molecule, with its + charged is attracted to the oxygen atom of a neighboring water molecules with its - charged forming hydrogen bond. - Therefore each water molecule can form hydrogen bonds a maximum of 4 neighboring water molecules.

- Polar compounds are hydrophilic and non polar compounds is hydrophobic - Water molecules, held together by hydrogen bonds, tend to push non polar compound away. thus non-polar compounds cluster together and are insoluble in water.

b) Water as solvent - Since water is a polar molecule, thus it act an excellent solvent particularly for ions and polar compounds. - A solvent is a fluid that capable of dissolving other substances. - Consider a salt is going into water. The ions of salt (Na and Cl) is held by ionic bond. Energy is needed to pull the positive and negative ions apart However, when the NaCl is placed in water the strong electrical attraction between the polar molecules will separate the ions in salt. This will result is the formation of solution of dissociated ions.

c) Cohesive and adhesive force - Water molecule have very high tendency to stick to one another, this ability is known as cohesive force. - This is due the present of hydrogen bond among the molecules. - Water molecule has a much greater attraction for other water molecule compare to molecule in the air. Thus water molecule at the surface crowd together producing a strong layer as they are pulled downward. - This tendency of water molecule to stick together at the surface is known as surface tension.

- Apart then that water molecule stick too many other kinds of substances. These adhesive force explain how water makes things wet. - Adhesive and cohesive forces account for capillary tube the tendency of water to rise in narrow tube.

d) Water molecule help to maintain the stable temperature.

- The temperature of water change slow compare to all other substance in nature. - This ability to minimize the temperature changes result from the hydrogen bonds that hold water molecules together. - Specific heat capacity is the amount of heat energy required to raise the temperature of 1 gram of substance by 1oC.

- The hydrogen that holding them together tend to restrict their motion, so that it takes more heat energy to raised the temperature of water that it would for a substances that lack of hydrogen bond. - Thus water has a very high specific heat capacity. It takes a lot of heat gain or loss to raise or lower the temperature of water.

e) Density of water - Water molecule reach their maximum density at 4oC and then begins to expand again as the temperature drops. - Hydrogen more rigid and increase the volume of ice thus cause ice floats on the denser cold water.