Question

 

Explain in detail why water molecules are polar. Your explanation can be as long as you wish. Your answer must be in your own words. Your answer must include the following terms: Polar, polar covalent bonds, electronegativity, oxygen, hydrogen, partial positive, partial negartive, electrons.

 

Answer 1

The water molecule is polar because of its shape and distribution of electrons between the hydrogen and oxygen atom.

water contains 2 hydrogen attached to a oxygen atom with single bonds by covalent bonds. the covalent bonds are made by sharing of electron and single bonds are formed bt the sharing one electron.

in standard conditions, the electrons of sharing should be exactly in the center / middle of the bonding atoms i.e. hydrogen and oxygen but due to large difference in their electronegativity, the pair of shared electrons is shifted / attracted towards more electronegative atom i.e. oxygen .

hence, in this way the slightly negative (delta - or partially negative) charge is gained by oxygen atom and slightly positive (delta + or partially positive ) charge on hydrogen atom. thus the water molecule becomes a dipole.

when such dipole water molecules come close to each other, their charges or polar forces attract them. the oxygen atom of water molecule will form temporary bond with several hydrogen atoms present in nearby several water molecules. the bonds formed are called as hydrogen bonds and each water molecule can make hydrogen bond with at least three water molecules.

And this is the reason, why the water molecule is a polar molecule.