Water is the most available compound on earth and is essential to life itself, without water, Earth would not exist. Water is a major component of cells, typically forming between 70 and 95% of the mass of the cell. This means that we are made approximately 80% water by mass, with some soft bodied creature, such as the jellyfish, are made of up to 96% of water. Water is the up-most important compound covering 75% of Earth, where it provides an environment for organisms to live in.
The Water Molecule¡s Polarity
Water itself is a simple molecule made up of 2 hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, H2O. The hydrogen and oxygen atoms are bonded covalently via a shared pair of electrons. Thus there are 4 pairs of electrons surrounding the oxygen atom, two pairs involved in covalent bonds with hydrogen, and unshared pairs on the opposite side of the oxygen atom. Oxygen is an electronegative atom compared with hydrogen. Covalent bonds are formed by sharing electrons in the outer shelves of the quantum shells, however in the case of water the large number of protons in the oxygen nucleus have a stronger attraction for these shared electrons than the comparatively tiny hydrogen nuclei. As a result pulling the electrons slightly closer to the oxygen atom giving it a partial negative charge (ƒÔ-) due to these unshared electrons, and partial positive charges (ƒÔ+) to the hydrogen atoms. This shows that water is a ¡§polar¡ molecule, meaning that there is an uneven distribution of electron density. An electrostatic attraction between the partial positive charges of the hydrogen atoms and the slight negative charge of the oxygen results in the formation of a weak hydrogen bond as shown in the above illustration.
Water is an unusual yet important molecule, mostly due to its hydrogen bonds; its properties allow it to react as a solvent, a reactant, as a molecule with cohesive properties, as an environment and as a temperat...