28 Jun 2022

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Properties of Water: The Science of H2O

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Water molecules comprise of one oxygen and two hydrogen molecules. It is the only naturally occurring component that has the ability to exist as liquid, gas and solid under normal room temperatures. Water freezes at 0 and boils at 100 degree Celsius. It exists naturally as a liquid and has a neutral pH when pure and is universally a solvent. In small quantities, water appears to be colorless, odorless and tasteless. 

Pure water has a high polarity. Water molecules are polar and are easily attracted to other polar ions. For this reason, sodium and chloride ions are highly soluble in water making it a strong solvent. Water molecules are useful in separating the sodium and chloride ions in water by surrounding it and creating hydration shells about each one of those ions. Water molecules are also adhesive and cohesive in nature. Cohesion defines the attraction of the water molecules within themselves and it allows water to form a surface on which insects and items can walk on or be held by. Adhesion on the other hand allows the molecules of water to be attracted to other substance molecules. This allows water to rise in containers and straws by capillarity. Water also has a lower density when it exists as ice. This is because freezing expands water allowing hydrogen bonds in the crystals to become more spaced hence less dense. In this way, icebergs can float in water (Andrew Miller, 2008) . Water also has a high heat of vaporization that allows it to be a great moderator of heat. Heat of vaporization defines the amount of heat necessary to vaporize a gram of water into gas. Since this is high in water, it takes a lot of energy to break hydrogen bonds allowing the process of heating and cooling of bodies. 

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Chemical Bonds in Water 

Water molecules comprise of one oxygen and two hydrogen atoms. The two hydrogen atoms are bonded to the oxygen nuclei by covalent bonds. This kind of bonding occurs when electrons are shared between the atoms in question. For water, two pairs of electrons are shared between the oxygen and the hydrogen molecules (Andrew Miller, 2008) . When the oxygen electrons bond with two hydrogen electrons, four of these remain as nonbonding within the atom. They organize themselves away from one another and cause repulsion and this in turn affects the angle between pairs of electrons. Repulsion occurs between negatively charged clouds creating tetrahedral angles of 109.5 degrees. Nonetheless, such bonds do not align themselves further from one another in water and increase repulsion against the bonding molecular pairs. This in turn affects the tetrahedral angle which instead becomes 104.5 degrees. 

While molecules of hydrogen are normally neutral, electrically speaking, the negative and positive charges have no uniform distribution (Boyd, 2012) . The negative charge is more concentrated at the end of the molecule with oxygen given the existence of nonbonding electrons. The nuclear charge in oxygen applies strong attractions on the electrons causing an electronic displacement. This creates the electrical image of water through the electric dipole formed. Yet another process of hydrogen bonding exists in water bonds. It involves the electrostatic attraction to the partially negative molecules of oxygen (Andrew Miller, 2008) . In such an occurrence, the hydrogen bond is normally stretched and consequently weaker than the covalent bond. Such bonds are so weak that they do not survive one second. 

Types of Large Biological Molecules Found in the Human Body 

Macromolecules in the human body include proteins, nucleic acids, carbohydrates and lipids. Proteins are molecules made from amino acid chains. Some of their functions include structural purposes such as collagen in the skin. Others are useful in chemical reactions as enzymes while others are found in parts of the body like muscles, hairs and bones. Muscle proteins enable the process of contraction allowing the body to move. Among other proteins is hemoglobin whose role it is to transport oxygen throughout the body. 

Carbohydrates comprise of monosaccharides connected together. They comprise of hydrogen, carbon and oxygen atoms, and are therefore organic. Their main functionality is to provide cells and tissues with energy. An example of a carbohydrate is starch which is a combination of multiple molecules of glucose. Carbohydrates include glycerol as well. These also include polyphenols that are made up of micro units of phenols clustered together. Some of these are such as lignin that are useful for pigmentation in the body (Andrew Miller, 2008) . Lipids, on the other hand, cannot dissolve in water; they are nonpolar and useful in the creation of the structure of cell membranes and in the provision of energy. Lipids include cholesterol, steroids, phospholipids and waxes. Among the examples of these are butter and other saturated fats. 

Nucleic acids are useful macromolecules in the body given their role of coding and providing genetic blueprint to the body. They are nucleotides in longer and reduced molecules made of several monomers. These nucleotides include nitrogenous base, a phosphate group and a five carbon sugar. There are only two forms of nucleic acids DNA, deoxyribonucleic acid and RNA, ribonucleic acid (Andrew Miller, 2008) . These exist in the nuclei of chloroplasts, eukaryotes and mitochondria. Both DNA and RNA include all the genetic information of the biological entity in which they are found. Biological macromolecules are useful in aiding the functions of the body. Without these, growth of microorganisms would be impossible. 

References 

Andrew Miller, J. T. (2008). Essentials of Chemical Biology: Structure and Dynamics of Biological Macromolecules. Hoboken: Wiley and Sons. 

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StudyBounty. (2023, September 17). Properties of Water: The Science of H2O.
https://studybounty.com/properties-of-water-the-science-of-h2o-coursework

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