Properties of Water

Introduction:
 Water is the most abundant substance in living systems, making up 70% or more of the weight of
most organisms.

 The first living organisms doubtless arose in aqueous environment, and the course of evolution
has been shaped by the properties of the aqueous medium in which life began

 Water is the essential solvent of life and the main chemical constituent of all cells. The essential
role played by water can be attributed to its unique physical and chemical properties, which
collectively act to protect living systems and are necessary to the structure and function of cells.

 One of the unusual characteristics of water is that despite of its low molecular weight, it is a
liquid at most environmental temperature. Other molecules having similar molecular weights
(e.g. ammonia, methane and H2S) are gases.

 Water has a higher melting point, boiling point and heat of vaporization than most other common
solvents.

 These unusual properties are a consequence of attractions between adjacent water molecules that
give liquid water great internal cohesion.

Structure of Water Molecule:

 The special properties of water are founded in its molecular structure. In water, two hydrogen
atoms are each covalently bonded to a single oxygen atom.

 Each hydrogen atom of a water molecule shares an electron pair with the oxygen atom.

 The geometry of the molecule is dictated by the shapes of the outer electron orbitals of the
oxygen atom, which are similar to the bonding orbitals of carbon.

 There orbitals describe a rough tetrahedron, a hydrogen atom at each of two corners and
unshared electron pairs at the other two corners.

 The H-O-H bond angle is 104.5º slightly less than the 109.5° of a perfect tetrahedron because of
crowding by the nonbonding orbitals of the oxygen atom.

 The oxygen nucleus attracts electrons more strongly than does the hydrogen nucleus (a proton);
oxygen is more electronegative.

 The sharing of electrons between H and O is therefore unequal; the electrons are more often in
the vicinity of the oxygen atom than of the hydrogen.

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 The result of this unequal electron sharing is two electric dipoles in the water molecule, one
along each of the H-O bonds; the oxygen atom bears a partial negative charge (2δ-), and each
hydrogen a partial positive charge (δ+)

 As a result, there is an electrostatic attraction between the oxygen atom of one water molecule
and the hydrogen of another, called a Hydrogen bond represented by 3 horizontal lines

Structure of the water molecule. The dipolar nature of the H2O molecule is shown by (a) ball-and-stick and (b)
space-filling models. The dashed lines in (a) represent the nonbonding orbitals. There is a nearly tetrahedral
arrangement of the outer-shell electron pairs around the oxygen atom; the two hydrogen atoms have localized partial
positive charges (δ+) and the oxygen atom has a partial negative charge (2δ-). (c) Two H2O molecules joined by a
hydrogen bond between the oxygen atom of the upper molecule and a hydrogen atom of the lower one. Hydrogen
bonds are longer and weaker than covalent O-H bond.

 Thus, by means of two covalent bonds and two hydrogen bonds each oxygen atom may bond to
as many as four hydrogen; the hydrogens form a tetrahedron about the oxygen.

 When the temperature of water is lowered, the concomitant decrease in kinetic energy allows the
water to become denser until at 4°C maximum density occurs.

 A continued decrease in kinetic energy allows more extensive and less transient formation of
hydrogen bonds among the water molecules.

 This promotes the development of a lattice structure.

 In liquid water at room temperature and atmospheric pressure, however, water molecules are
disorganized and in continuous motion, so that each molecule forms hydrogen bond with an
average of only 3.4 other molecules. In ice, on the other hand, each water molecule is fixed in
space and forms hydrogen bonds with a full complement of four other water molecules to yield a
regular lattice structure

 As the freezing point of water is approached, more space is developed between the molecules of
water and the density decreases; thus, freezing water and ice rice to the surface of the liquid.

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 When water is heated, the increase in temperature reflects the faster motion of individual water
molecules. During evaporation, more highly ordered arrays in liquid water relax into the less
orderly hydrogen-bonded arrays. Ultimately reaching the wholly disordered gaseous state.

Properties and Significance Of water:-

1) Water as a Solvent:
 Although water is often called the "Universal Solvent", not all substances dissolve in water.
However, water does dissolve most salts and other ionic compounds, as well as non ionic polar
compounds such as sugars, alcohols and other molecules that contain hydroxyl, aldehyde and
ketone groups- (-OH, CHO, C=O).

 Water is a polar solvent. It readily dissolves most biomolecules, which are generally charged or
polar compounds; compounds that dissolve easily in water are hydrophilic (Greek, “water-
loving”). In contrast, nonpolar solvents such as chloroform and benzene are poor solvents for
polar biomolecules but easily dissolve those that are hydrophobic—nonpolar molecules such as
lipids and waxes

 Many substances that contain both polar and non-polar groups (amphipathic compounds)(such
as soaps, fatty acids and glycerophosphatides) do not dissolve in the water but they do form
Micelles. A micellar arrangement is not a true solution but is a suspension or dispension.

 The behaviour of soap molecules in water is a good and also common example of micelle
formation. Soap molecules, formed by the saponification of fatty acids consists of a long,
nonpolar hydrocarbon chain terminating in a polar carboxyl group that is ionically bonded to a
metal ion such as K+ or Na+.

 When dispersed in water, the soap molecules aggregate to form spherical clusters, called
micelles, in which the polar carboxyl groups of the soap molecules are arranged at the surface of

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the sphere, where they form weak bonds with the surrounding water, and the non-polar
hydrocarbon chains project inward.

Long-chain fatty acids have very hydrophobic alkyl chains, each of which is surrounded by a layer of highly ordered
water molecules. (b) By clustering together in micelles, the fatty acid molecules expose the smallest possible
hydrophobic surface area to the water, and fewer water molecules are required in the shell of ordered water. The
energy gained by freeing immobilized water molecules stabilizes the micelle

Water dissolves many crystalline salts by hydrating their component ions. The NaCl crystal lattice is disrupted

as water molecules cluster about the Cl- and Na+ ions. The ionic charges are partially neutralized, and the
electrostatic attractions necessary for lattice formation are weakened

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 Uncharged but polar biomolecules such as sugars dissolve readily in water because of the
stabilizing effect of hydrogen bonds between the hydroxyl groups or carbonyl oxygen of the
sugar and the polar water molecules. Alcohols, aldehydes, ketones and compounds containing
N-H bond all form hydrogen bonds with water molecules.

 Gases that enter the cell from the environment or are produced by the metabolism of a cell
dissolve in the cytoplasmic water. The most common gases in air are Nitrogen (N2), Oxygen (O2)
and Carbon dioxide (CO2), Both nitrogen and oxygen dissolve in water in their molecular forms,
but their solubility in water is low.

2) Osmosis:
 Osmosis, is the water movement across a semi-permeable membrane driven by difference in
osmotic pressure, is an important factor in the life of most cells.

 Plasma membranes are more permeable to water than to most other small molecules, ions and
macromolecules. This permeability is partly due to simple diffusion of water through the lipid
bilayer and partly due to protein channels (aqua protiens) in the membrane that selectively permit
the passage of water.

 Solutions of equal osmolarity are set to be isotonic. Surrounded by an isotonic solution, a cell
neither gains nor loses water as there is no net water movement

 In case of an hypertonic solution water moves out and cell shrinks whereas in case of an
hypotonic solution water moves in swelling the cell and eventually bursting it

 In a hypertonic solution, one with higher osmolarity than the cytosol the cell shrinks as water
flows out. In a hypotonic solution (of lower osmolarity), the cell swells and if unsupported by a
cell wall, eventually bursts.

 Cells generally contain higher concentration of bimolecules and ions than their surroundings, so
osmotic pressure tends to drive water into the cells. Of not somehow counterbalanced, this
inward movement of water would distend the plasma membrane and eventually cause explosion
of cells (osmotic lysis).

3) Uniquely high surface tension:-

Like a stretched membrane, the surface of a liquid tends to contract as much as
possible. This phenomenon is called surface tension. Water has the highest surface
tension (of 72.8) of any known liquid. And this is the reason why water rises to unusually
high levels in narrow capillary tubes and has great significance in physiology.

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4) Uniquely high heat capacity;-
There occurs a smaller temperature rise in water as compared to most other substances,
when a given amount of heat is applied. Thus, water acts as a temperature buffer. Water
maintains its temperature more successfully than most other substances. Thus water has a
high heat capacity (1,000 cal/g).

5) Expands on freezing:-
When temperature of water is raised above 0ºC its volume decreases upto 4ºC and
thereafter increases. Water has the minimum volume and hence the maximium density of
1.00 at 4ºC.The volume of water at 4ºC increases either on heating or cooling it. (Search
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