4/20/2020 Chemical Bonds IV: Hydrogen - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.

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Chemical Bonds IV: Hydrogen

Lesson Transcript

This lesson de nes and discusses important concepts behind hydrogen bonding. You'll learn when and why these
bonds occur and which atoms are often involved.

Bonding
Man, is chemistry confusing or what? We can bond over that one fact, can't we? And one of the
most confusing concepts in chemistry is bonding. In this lesson, you're going to learn about bonds;
speci cally, a bit about hydrogen bonding. But, this lesson will hopefully make hydrogen bonding
very clear to you with a little help from Agent Bond - Adam Bond.

Intramolecular Forces
Before we can understand what a hydrogen bond is, we have to understand two concepts:
intramolecular forces and intermolecular forces. First, let's look at intramolecular forces. Say Adam
is in a room with two spies; each person represents a single atom and each person's arms
represents a bond, which, for this lesson's sake, we can simply state, is an attraction, or attractive
force, between atoms. If Adam reaches out with his left arm and grabs hold of one of the spies and
then reaches out with his right arm and grabs the other spy, we now have a three atom molecule. A
molecule simply put, is two or more atoms joined together via bonds.

Our three atom molecule is held together by Adam's arms, the bonds. When bonds occur inside
molecules like this, we sometimes use the term intramolecular forces to refer to these internal
bonds. Note the 'intra' in intramolecular. 'Intra' means, 'within something,' so intramolecular
forces are the bonds holding a molecule together. These types of bonds occur via the sharing of
electrons between atoms thanks to something known as covalent bonding. Covalent bonds are
chemical bonds, or attractive forces, that arise thanks to the sharing of a pair of electrons between
atoms.

Intermolecular Forces
Okay, that was easy, right? Now, imagine Adam and the two spies he has a hold of sticking to
another group of three people, held together in a similar arrangement; in other words, two
molecules are attracted to one another. These molecules are attracted to one another thanks to
intermolecular forces, which are forces of attraction that occur between molecules. It is these
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4/20/2020 Chemical Bonds IV: Hydrogen - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

forces that allow for the formation of liquids, like water, and solids. Note the 'inter,' in
intermolecular. 'Inter' means between something - between molecules in this case. Don't get
confused with 'intra,' which, again, refers to within something. With that little reminder out of the
way, you are now ready to understand what a hydrogen bond is and isn't.

What Are Hydrogen Bonds?

A hydrogen bond is an intermolecular force between a hydrogen atom in one polar molecule and
a small and very electronegative atom of another polar molecule. That's the simple de nition.
There is more to it. First, a hydrogen bond is an attraction/force/bond between two molecules.
Second, it occurs between a hydrogen atom of one molecule and a very small and electronegative
atom of another molecule.

Electronegativity can be simply phrased as the ability of an atom to attract electrons. The higher
the electronegativity of an atom, the more strongly it will attract electrons. These very small and
highly electronegative atoms are notably non-metals, like oxygen (O), nitrogen (N), and uorine (F).
In other words, hydrogen will form a bond with either an oxygen, nitrogen, or uorine atom of
another molecule in a hydrogen bond.

If a chemical bond occurs between two atoms of the same electronegativity, the atoms will share
electrons between them equally and thus form a non-polar bond. However, if the atoms have
di erent electronegativities, the electrons will not be shared equally and a polar bond will be
formed. In this case, the more electronegative atom will have a partial negative charge and the
other atom will have a partial positive charge. The charges are symbolized by the Greek letter
'Delta.' Due to a combination of the presence of a polar bond, as well as the shape or geometry of
the molecule, a molecule might be electrically asymmetrical. We call such an electrically
asymmetrical molecule a dipole. We can say it another way. A dipole is a molecule that's oppositely
charged at two points. For this lesson's sake, we can equate the term 'dipole' to that of polar
molecule, although these two terms are sometimes used di erently.

During hydrogen boding, one molecule serves as a hydrogen bond donor. This molecule has a
relatively large positive charge at one end, thanks to its hydrogen atom being covalently bonded to
a very electronegative atom, like oxygen. The molecule that serves as the hydrogen bond acceptor
will need to have an atom with a loan pair of electrons, namely on the O, F or N atom. Seeing as
these are highly electronegative atoms, they will have a partial negative charge and if you know
anything about chemistry, positive and negative charges love to attract to one another. When two
polar molecules of this description meet with one another, they form a strong dipole-dipole
attraction between one another - a hydrogen bond. However, hydrogen bonds are quite weak
when compared to covalent bonds and ionic bonds. A hydrogen bond is usually only 2-5% as strong
as a typical covalent bond.

Daily Example
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4/20/2020 Chemical Bonds IV: Hydrogen - Video & Lesson Transcript | Study.com

Despite being relatively weak, hydrogen bonds are still pretty important and must be strong. For
example, hydrogen bonds form liquids, like water, and they provide for the surface tension upon
which water striders can move across. Hydrogen bonding is also very important for the formation
of paper products, since the bers that comprise these stick to one another thanks to hydrogen
bonds.

Lesson Summary
A bond is an attraction, or attractive force, between atoms. These can be intramolecular forces,
or the bonds holding a molecule together. An example is a covalent bonds or chemical bonds, or
attractive forces, that arise thanks to the sharing of a pair of electrons between atoms. They also
can be intermolecular forces, which are forces of attraction that occur between molecules. An
example is a hydrogen bond, which is an intermolecular force between a hydrogen atom in one
polar molecule and a small and very electronegative atom of another polar molecule. These bonds
occur when a hydrogen in one molecule is chemically bonded to a highly electronegative atom,
such as O, N, or F.

Electronegativity can be simply phrased as the ability of an atom to attract electrons. When such a
polar molecule comes near another polar molecule with a pair of electrons on an O, N, or F, a
hydrogen bond may occur.

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