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Water () is a
polar Polar may refer to: Geography Polar may refer to: * Geographical pole, either of two fixed points on the surface of a rotating body or planet, at 90 degrees from the equator, based on the axis around which a body rotates *Polar climate, the cli ...
inorganic compound In chemistry, an inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds, that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as '' inorganic chemis ...
that is at
room temperature Colloquially, "room temperature" is a range of air temperatures that most people prefer for indoor settings. It feels comfortable to a person when they are wearing typical indoor clothing. Human comfort can extend beyond this range depending on ...
a tasteless and odorless
liquid A liquid is a nearly incompressible fluid that conforms to the shape of its container but retains a (nearly) constant volume independent of pressure. As such, it is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, gas, ...
, which is nearly colorless apart from an inherent hint of blue. It is by far the most studied chemical compound and is described as the "universal
solvent A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...
" and the "solvent of life". It is the most abundant substance on the surface of
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...
and the only common substance to exist as a
solid Solid is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being liquid, gas, and plasma). The molecules in a solid are closely packed together and contain the least amount of kinetic energy. A solid is characterized by structur ...
, liquid, and gas on Earth's surface. It is also the third most abundant molecule in the universe (behind molecular hydrogen and
carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide ( chemical formula CO) is a colorless, poisonous, odorless, tasteless, flammable gas that is slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the simpl ...
). Water molecules form
hydrogen bonds In chemistry, a hydrogen bond (or H-bond) is a primarily electrostatic force of attraction between a hydrogen (H) atom which is covalently bound to a more electronegative "donor" atom or group (Dn), and another electronegative atom bearing a l ...
with each other and are strongly polar. This polarity allows it to dissociate ions in salts and bond to other polar substances such as alcohols and acids, thus dissolving them. Its hydrogen bonding causes its many unique properties, such as having a solid form less dense than its liquid form, a relatively high
boiling point The boiling point of a substance is the temperature at which the vapor pressure of a liquid equals the pressure surrounding the liquid and the liquid changes into a vapor. The boiling point of a liquid varies depending upon the surrounding env ...
of 100 °C for its molar mass, and a high
heat capacity Heat capacity or thermal capacity is a physical property of matter, defined as the amount of heat to be supplied to an object to produce a unit change in its temperature. The SI unit of heat capacity is joule per kelvin (J/K). Heat cap ...
. Water is amphoteric, meaning that it can exhibit properties of an acid or a base, depending on the pH of the solution that it is in; it readily produces both and ions. Related to its amphoteric character, it undergoes self-ionization. The product of the activities, or approximately, the concentrations of and is a constant, so their respective concentrations are inversely proportional to each other.


Physical properties

Water is the
chemical substance A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., wit ...
with
chemical formula In chemistry, a chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, ...
; one
molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and b ...
of water has two
hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-to ...
atom Every atom is composed of a nucleus and one or more electrons bound to the nucleus. The nucleus is made of one or more protons and a number of neutrons. Only the most common variety of hydrogen has no neutrons. Every solid, liquid, gas, a ...
s
covalent A covalent bond is a chemical bond that involves the sharing of electrons to form electron pairs between atoms. These electron pairs are known as shared pairs or bonding pairs. The stable balance of attractive and repulsive forces between atom ...
ly bonded to a single
oxygen Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements ...
atom. Water is a tasteless, odorless liquid at ambient temperature and pressure. Liquid water has weak
absorption band According to quantum mechanics, atoms and molecules can only hold certain defined quantities of energy, or exist in specific states. When such quanta of electromagnetic radiation are emitted or absorbed by an atom or molecule, energy of th ...
s at wavelengths of around 750 nm which cause it to appear to have a blue colour. This can easily be observed in a water-filled bath or wash-basin whose lining is white. Large ice crystals, as in
glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...
s, also appear blue. Under standard conditions, water is primarily a liquid, unlike other analogous hydrides of the oxygen family, which are generally gaseous. This unique property of water is due to hydrogen bonding. The molecules of water are constantly moving concerning each other, and the hydrogen bonds are continually breaking and reforming at timescales faster than 200 femtoseconds (2 × 10−13 seconds). However, these bonds are strong enough to create many of the peculiar properties of water, some of which make it integral to life.


Water, ice, and vapour

Within the Earth's atmosphere and surface, the liquid phase is the most common and is the form that is generally denoted by the word "water". The solid phase of water is known as ice and commonly takes the structure of hard, amalgamated crystals, such as
ice cubes An ice cube is a small piece of ice, which is typically rectangular as viewed from above and trapezoidal as viewed from the side. Ice cubes are products of mechanical refrigeration and are usually produced to cool beverages. They may be produ ...
, or loosely accumulated granular crystals, like
snow Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes. It consists of frozen crystalline water throughou ...
. Aside from common hexagonal crystalline ice, other crystalline and amorphous phases of ice are known. The
gaseous phase Gas is one of the four fundamental states of matter (the others being solid, liquid, and plasma). A pure gas may be made up of individual atoms (e.g. a noble gas like neon), elemental molecules made from one type of atom (e.g. oxygen), or co ...
of water is known as
water vapor (99.9839 °C) , - , Boiling point , , - , specific gas constant , 461.5 J/( kg·K) , - , Heat of vaporization , 2.27 MJ/kg , - , Heat capacity , 1.864 kJ/(kg·K) Water vapor, water vapour or aqueous vapor is the gaseous p ...
(or
steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...
). Visible steam and clouds are formed from minute droplets of water suspended in the air. Water also forms a supercritical fluid. The critical temperature is 647 K and the critical pressure is 22.064 MPa. In nature, this only rarely occurs in extremely hostile conditions. A likely example of naturally occurring supercritical water is in the hottest parts of deep water hydrothermal vents, in which water is heated to the critical temperature by
volcanic A volcano is a rupture in the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. On Earth, volcanoes are most often found where tectonic plat ...
plumes and the critical pressure is caused by the weight of the ocean at the extreme depths where the vents are located. This pressure is reached at a depth of about 2200 meters: much less than the mean depth of the ocean (3800 meters).


Heat capacity and heats of vaporization and fusion

Water has a very high
specific heat capacity In thermodynamics, the specific heat capacity (symbol ) of a substance is the heat capacity of a sample of the substance divided by the mass of the sample, also sometimes referred to as massic heat capacity. Informally, it is the amount of heat t ...
of 4184 J/(kg·K) at 20 °C (4182 J/(kg·K) at 25 °C) —the second-highest among all the heteroatomic species (after
ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous ...
), as well as a high
heat of vaporization The enthalpy of vaporization (symbol ), also known as the (latent) heat of vaporization or heat of evaporation, is the amount of energy (enthalpy) that must be added to a liquid substance to transform a quantity of that substance into a gas. T ...
(40.65 kJ/mol or 2257 kJ/kg at the normal boiling point), both of which are a result of the extensive
hydrogen bond In chemistry, a hydrogen bond (or H-bond) is a primarily electrostatic force of attraction between a hydrogen (H) atom which is covalently bound to a more electronegative "donor" atom or group (Dn), and another electronegative atom bearing a l ...
ing between its molecules. These two unusual properties allow water to moderate Earth's
climate Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...
by buffering large fluctuations in temperature. Most of the additional energy stored in the climate system since 1970 has accumulated in the oceans. The specific enthalpy of fusion (more commonly known as latent heat) of water is 333.55 kJ/kg at 0 °C: the same amount of energy is required to melt ice as to warm ice from −160 °C up to its melting point or to heat the same amount of water by about 80 °C. Of common substances, only that of ammonia is higher. This property confers resistance to melting on the ice of
glacier A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...
s and drift ice. Before and since the advent of mechanical refrigeration, ice was and still is in common use for retarding food spoilage. The specific heat capacity of ice at −10 °C is 2030 J/(kg·K) and the heat capacity of steam at 100 °C is 2080 J/(kg·K).


Density of water and ice

The
density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the substance's mass per unit of volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' can also be used. Mathematicall ...
of water is about : this relationship was originally used to define the gram. The density varies with temperature, but not linearly: as the temperature increases, the density rises to a peak at and then decreases; the initial increase is unusual because most liquids undergo
thermal expansion Thermal expansion is the tendency of matter to change its shape, area, volume, and density in response to a change in temperature, usually not including phase transitions. Temperature is a monotonic function of the average molecular kin ...
so that the density only decreases as a function of temperature. The increase observed for water from to and for a few other liquids is described as negative thermal expansion. Regular, hexagonal ice is also less dense than liquid water—upon freezing, the density of water decreases by about 9%. These peculiar effects are due to the highly directional bonding of water molecules via the hydrogen bonds: ice and liquid water at low temperature have comparatively low-density, low-energy open lattice structures. The breaking of hydrogen bonds on melting with increasing temperature in the range 0–4 °C allows for a denser molecular packing in which some of the lattice cavities are filled by water molecules. Above 4 °C, however, thermal expansion becomes the dominant effect, and water near the boiling point (100 °C) is about 4% less dense than water at . Under increasing pressure, ice undergoes a number of transitions to other polymorphs with higher density than liquid water, such as ice II, ice III, high-density amorphous ice (HDA), and
very-high-density amorphous ice Amorphous ice (non-crystalline or "vitreous" ice) is an amorphous solid form of water. Common ice is a crystalline material wherein the molecules are regularly arranged in a hexagonal lattice, whereas amorphous ice has a lack of long-range order ...
(VHDA). The unusual density curve and lower density of ice than of water is essential for much of the life on earth—if water were most dense at the freezing point, then in winter the cooling at the surface would lead to convective mixing. Once 0 °C are reached, the water body would freeze from the bottom up, and all life in it would be killed. Furthermore, given that water is a good thermal insulator (due to its heat capacity), some frozen lakes might not completely thaw in summer. As it is, the inversion of the density curve leads to a stable layering for surface temperatures below 4 °C, and with the layer of ice that floats on top insulating the water below, even e.g.,
Lake Baikal Lake Baikal (, russian: Oзеро Байкал, Ozero Baykal ); mn, Байгал нуур, Baigal nuur) is a rift lake in Russia. It is situated in southern Siberia, between the federal subjects of Irkutsk Oblast to the northwest and the ...
in central
Siberia Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
freezes only to about 1 m thickness in winter. In general, for deep enough lakes, the temperature at the bottom stays constant at about 4 °C (39 °F) throughout the year (see diagram).


Density of saltwater and ice

The density of saltwater depends on the dissolved salt content as well as the temperature. Ice still floats in the oceans, otherwise, they would freeze from the bottom up. However, the salt content of oceans lowers the freezing point by about 1.9 °C (see
here Here is an adverb that means "in, on, or at this place". It may also refer to: Software * Here Technologies, a mapping company * Here WeGo (formerly Here Maps), a mobile app and map website by Here Television * Here TV (formerly "here!"), a ...
for explanation) and lowers the temperature of the density maximum of water to the former freezing point at 0 °C. This is why, in ocean water, the downward convection of colder water is ''not'' blocked by an expansion of water as it becomes colder near the freezing point. The oceans' cold water near the freezing point continues to sink. So creatures that live at the bottom of cold oceans like the
Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...
generally live in water 4 °C colder than at the bottom of frozen-over
fresh water Fresh water or freshwater is any naturally occurring liquid or frozen water containing low concentrations of dissolved salts and other total dissolved solids. Although the term specifically excludes seawater and brackish water, it does incl ...
lakes and rivers. As the surface of saltwater begins to freeze (at −1.9 °C for normal salinity
seawater Seawater, or salt water, is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5% (35 g/L, 35 ppt, 600 mM). This means that every kilogram (roughly one liter by volume) of seawater has appro ...
, 3.5%) the ice that forms is essentially salt-free, with about the same density as freshwater ice. This ice floats on the surface, and the salt that is "frozen out" adds to the
salinity Salinity () is the saltiness or amount of salt (chemistry), salt dissolved in a body of water, called saline water (see also soil salinity). It is usually measured in g/L or g/kg (grams of salt per liter/kilogram of water; the latter is dimensio ...
and density of the seawater just below it, in a process known as '' brine rejection''. This denser saltwater sinks by convection and the replacing seawater is subject to the same process. This produces essentially freshwater ice at −1.9 °C on the surface. The increased density of the seawater beneath the forming ice causes it to sink towards the bottom. On a large scale, the process of brine rejection and sinking cold salty water results in ocean currents forming to transport such water away from the Poles, leading to a global system of currents called the thermohaline circulation.


Miscibility and condensation

Water is miscible with many liquids, including
ethanol Ethanol (abbr. EtOH; also called ethyl alcohol, grain alcohol, drinking alcohol, or simply alcohol) is an organic compound. It is an alcohol with the chemical formula . Its formula can be also written as or (an ethyl group linked to a ...
in all proportions. Water and most oils are immiscible usually forming layers according to increasing density from the top. This can be predicted by comparing the polarity. Water being a relatively polar compound will tend to be miscible with liquids of high polarity such as ethanol and acetone, whereas compounds with low polarity will tend to be immiscible and poorly soluble such as with
hydrocarbons In organic chemistry, a hydrocarbon is an organic compound consisting entirely of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrocarbons are examples of group 14 hydrides. Hydrocarbons are generally colourless and hydrophobic, and their odors are usually weak or ...
. As a gas, water vapor is completely miscible with air. On the other hand, the maximum water
vapor pressure Vapor pressure (or vapour pressure in English-speaking countries other than the US; see spelling differences) or equilibrium vapor pressure is defined as the pressure exerted by a vapor in thermodynamic equilibrium with its condensed pha ...
that is thermodynamically stable with the liquid (or solid) at a given temperature is relatively low compared with total atmospheric pressure. For example, if the vapor's
partial pressure In a mixture of gases, each constituent gas has a partial pressure which is the notional pressure of that constituent gas as if it alone occupied the entire volume of the original mixture at the same temperature. The total pressure of an ideal g ...
is 2% of atmospheric pressure and the air is cooled from 25 °C, starting at about 22 °C, water will start to condense, defining the
dew point The dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled to become saturated with water vapor, assuming constant air pressure and water content. When cooled below the dew point, moisture capacity is reduced and airborne water vapor will ...
, and creating
fog Fog is a visible aerosol consisting of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the air at or near the Earth's surface. Reprint from Fog can be considered a type of low-lying cloud usually resembling stratus, and is heavily influ ...
or dew. The reverse process accounts for the fog burning off in the morning. If the humidity is increased at room temperature, for example, by running a hot shower or a bath, and the temperature stays about the same, the vapor soon reaches the pressure for phase change and then condenses out as minute water droplets, commonly referred to as steam. A saturated gas or one with 100% relative humidity is when the vapor pressure of water in the air is at equilibrium with vapor pressure due to (liquid) water; water (or ice, if cool enough) will fail to lose mass through evaporation when exposed to saturated air. Because the amount of water vapor in the air is small, relative humidity, the ratio of the partial pressure due to the water vapor to the saturated partial vapor pressure, is much more useful. Vapor pressure above 100% relative humidity is called supersaturated and can occur if the air is rapidly cooled, for example, by rising suddenly in an updraft.


Vapor pressure


Compressibility

The compressibility of water is a function of pressure and temperature. At 0 °C, at the limit of zero pressure, the compressibility is . At the zero-pressure limit, the compressibility reaches a minimum of around 45 °C before increasing again with increasing temperature. As the pressure is increased, the compressibility decreases, being at 0 °C and . The
bulk modulus The bulk modulus (K or B) of a substance is a measure of how resistant to compression the substance is. It is defined as the ratio of the infinitesimal pressure increase to the resulting ''relative'' decrease of the volume. Other moduli descri ...
of water is about 2.2 GPa. The low compressibility of non-gasses, and of water in particular, leads to their often being assumed as incompressible. The low compressibility of water means that even in the deep
ocean The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wor ...
s at 4 km depth, where pressures are 40 MPa, there is only a 1.8% decrease in volume. The bulk modulus of water ice ranges from 11.3 GPa at 0 K up to 8.6 GPa at 273 K. The large change in the compressibility of ice as a function of temperature is the result of its relatively large thermal expansion coefficient compared to other common solids.


Triple point

The
temperature Temperature is a physical quantity that expresses quantitatively the perceptions of hotness and coldness. Temperature is measured with a thermometer. Thermometers are calibrated in various temperature scales that historically have relied o ...
and
pressure Pressure (symbol: ''p'' or ''P'') is the force applied perpendicular to the surface of an object per unit area over which that force is distributed. Gauge pressure (also spelled ''gage'' pressure)The preferred spelling varies by country a ...
at which ordinary solid, liquid, and gaseous water coexist in equilibrium is a
triple point In thermodynamics, the triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which the three phases (gas, liquid, and solid) of that substance coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium.. It is that temperature and pressure at which the ...
of water. Since 1954, this point had been used to define the base unit of temperature, the
kelvin The kelvin, symbol K, is the primary unit of temperature in the International System of Units (SI), used alongside its prefixed forms and the degree Celsius. It is named after the Belfast-born and University of Glasgow-based engineer and ...
, but, starting in 2019, the kelvin is now defined using the
Boltzmann constant The Boltzmann constant ( or ) is the proportionality factor that relates the average relative kinetic energy of particles in a gas with the thermodynamic temperature of the gas. It occurs in the definitions of the kelvin and the gas constan ...
, rather than the triple point of water. Due to the existence of many polymorphs (forms) of ice, water has other triple points, which have either three polymorphs of ice or two polymorphs of ice and liquid in equilibrium.
Gustav Heinrich Johann Apollon Tammann Gustav Heinrich Johann Apollon Tammann ( – 17 December 1938) was a prominent Baltic German chemist-physicist who made important contributions in the fields of glassy and solid solutions, heterogeneous equilibria, crystallization, and metallurgy ...
in Göttingen produced data on several other triple points in the early 20th century. Kamb and others documented further triple points in the 1960s.


Melting point

The melting point of ice is at standard pressure; however, pure liquid water can be
supercooled Supercooling, also known as undercooling, is the process of lowering the temperature of a liquid or a gas below its melting point without it becoming a solid. It achieves this in the absence of a seed crystal or nucleus around which a crysta ...
well below that temperature without freezing if the liquid is not mechanically disturbed. It can remain in a fluid state down to its homogeneous nucleation point of about . The melting point of ordinary hexagonal ice falls slightly under moderately high pressures, by /atm or about /70 atm as the stabilization energy of hydrogen bonding is exceeded by intermolecular repulsion, but as ice transforms into its polymorphs (see crystalline states of ice) above , the melting point increases markedly with pressure, i.e., reaching at (triple point of
Ice VII Ice VII is a cubic crystalline form of ice. It can be formed from liquid water above 3 GPa (30,000 atmospheres) by lowering its temperature to room temperature, or by decompressing heavy water (D2O) ice VI below 95 K. (Different types of ice, ...
).


Electrical properties


Electrical conductivity

Pure water containing no exogenous ions is an excellent electronic insulator, but not even "deionized" water is completely free of ions. Water undergoes autoionization in the liquid state when two water molecules form one hydroxide anion () and one hydronium cation (). Because of autoionization, at ambient temperatures pure liquid water has a similar intrinsic charge carrier concentration to the semiconductor germanium and an intrinsic charge carrier concentration three orders of magnitude greater than the semiconductor silicon, hence, based on charge carrier concentration, water can not be considered to be a completely dielectric material or electrical insulator but to be a limited conductor of ionic charge. Because water is such a good solvent, it almost always has some solute dissolved in it, often a
salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
. If water has even a tiny amount of such an impurity, then the ions can carry charges back and forth, allowing the water to conduct electricity far more readily. It is known that the theoretical maximum electrical resistivity for water is approximately 18.2 MΩ·cm (182 ·m) at 25 °C. This figure agrees well with what is typically seen on reverse osmosis, ultra-filtered and deionized ultra-pure water systems used, for instance, in semiconductor manufacturing plants. A salt or acid contaminant level exceeding even 100 parts per trillion (ppt) in otherwise ultra-pure water begins to noticeably lower its resistivity by up to several kΩ·m. In pure water, sensitive equipment can detect a very slight
electrical conductivity Electrical resistivity (also called specific electrical resistance or volume resistivity) is a fundamental property of a material that measures how strongly it resists electric current. A low resistivity indicates a material that readily allows ...
of 0.05501 ± 0.0001
μS A microsecond is a unit of time in the International System of Units (SI) equal to one millionth (0.000001 or 10−6 or ) of a second. Its symbol is μs, sometimes simplified to us when Unicode is not available. A microsecond is equal to 1000 n ...
/ cm at 25.00 °C. Water can also be electrolyzed into oxygen and hydrogen gases but in the absence of dissolved ions this is a very slow process, as very little current is conducted. In ice, the primary charge carriers are
protons A proton is a stable subatomic particle, symbol , H+, or 1H+ with a positive electric charge of +1 ''e'' elementary charge. Its mass is slightly less than that of a neutron and 1,836 times the mass of an electron (the proton–electron m ...
(see
proton conductor A proton conductor is an electrolyte, typically a solid electrolyte, in which H+ are the primary charge carriers. Composition Acid solutions exhibit proton-conductivity, while pure proton conductors are usually dry solids. Typical materials a ...
). Ice was previously thought to have a small but measurable conductivity of 1 S/cm, but this conductivity is now thought to be almost entirely from surface defects, and without those, ice is an insulator with an immeasurably small conductivity.


Polarity and hydrogen bonding

An important feature of water is its polar nature. The structure has a
bent molecular geometry In chemistry, molecules with a non-collinear arrangement of two adjacent bonds have bent molecular geometry, also known as angular or V-shaped. Certain atoms, such as oxygen, will almost always set their two (or more) covalent bonds in non-colline ...
for the two hydrogens from the oxygen vertex. The oxygen atom also has two lone pairs of electrons. One effect usually ascribed to the lone pairs is that the H–O–H gas-phase bend angle is 104.48°, which is smaller than the typical tetrahedral angle of 109.47°. The lone pairs are closer to the oxygen atom than the electrons sigma bonded to the hydrogens, so they require more space. The increased repulsion of the lone pairs forces the O–H bonds closer to each other. Another consequence of its
structure A structure is an arrangement and organization of interrelated elements in a material object or system, or the object or system so organized. Material structures include man-made objects such as buildings and machines and natural objects such a ...
is that water is a polar molecule. Due to the difference in electronegativity, a bond dipole moment points from each H to the O, making the oxygen partially negative and each hydrogen partially positive. A large molecular dipole, points from a region between the two hydrogen atoms to the oxygen atom. The charge differences cause water molecules to aggregate (the relatively positive areas being attracted to the relatively negative areas). This attraction,
hydrogen bond In chemistry, a hydrogen bond (or H-bond) is a primarily electrostatic force of attraction between a hydrogen (H) atom which is covalently bound to a more electronegative "donor" atom or group (Dn), and another electronegative atom bearing a l ...
ing, explains many of the properties of water, such as its solvent properties. Although hydrogen bonding is a relatively weak attraction compared to the covalent bonds within the water molecule itself, it is responsible for several of the water's physical properties. These properties include its relatively high
melting Melting, or fusion, is a physical process that results in the phase transition of a substance from a solid to a liquid. This occurs when the internal energy of the solid increases, typically by the application of heat or pressure, which in ...
and boiling point temperatures: more energy is required to break the hydrogen bonds between water molecules. In contrast, hydrogen sulfide (), has much weaker hydrogen bonding due to sulfur's lower electronegativity. is a gas at
room temperature Colloquially, "room temperature" is a range of air temperatures that most people prefer for indoor settings. It feels comfortable to a person when they are wearing typical indoor clothing. Human comfort can extend beyond this range depending on ...
, despite hydrogen sulfide having nearly twice the molar mass of water. The extra bonding between water molecules also gives liquid water a large
specific heat capacity In thermodynamics, the specific heat capacity (symbol ) of a substance is the heat capacity of a sample of the substance divided by the mass of the sample, also sometimes referred to as massic heat capacity. Informally, it is the amount of heat t ...
. This high heat capacity makes water a good heat storage medium (coolant) and heat shield.


Cohesion and adhesion

Water molecules stay close to each other ( cohesion), due to the collective action of hydrogen bonds between water molecules. These hydrogen bonds are constantly breaking, with new bonds being formed with different water molecules; but at any given time in a sample of liquid water, a large portion of the molecules are held together by such bonds. Water also has high
adhesion Adhesion is the tendency of dissimilar particles or surfaces to cling to one another ( cohesion refers to the tendency of similar or identical particles/surfaces to cling to one another). The forces that cause adhesion and cohesion can ...
properties because of its polar nature. On clean, smooth
glass Glass is a non- crystalline, often transparent, amorphous solid that has widespread practical, technological, and decorative use in, for example, window panes, tableware, and optics. Glass is most often formed by rapid cooling (quenchin ...
the water may form a thin film because the molecular forces between glass and water molecules (adhesive forces) are stronger than the cohesive forces. In biological cells and
organelle In cell biology, an organelle is a specialized subunit, usually within a cell, that has a specific function. The name ''organelle'' comes from the idea that these structures are parts of cells, as organs are to the body, hence ''organelle,'' th ...
s, water is in contact with membrane and protein surfaces that are
hydrophilic A hydrophile is a molecule or other molecular entity that is attracted to water molecules and tends to be dissolved by water.Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. In contrast, hydrophobes are n ...
; that is, surfaces that have a strong attraction to water.
Irving Langmuir Irving Langmuir (; January 31, 1881 – August 16, 1957) was an American chemist, physicist, and engineer. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1932 for his work in surface chemistry. Langmuir's most famous publication is the 1919 ar ...
observed a strong repulsive force between hydrophilic surfaces. To dehydrate hydrophilic surfaces—to remove the strongly held layers of water of hydration—requires doing substantial work against these forces, called hydration forces. These forces are very large but decrease rapidly over a nanometer or less. They are important in biology, particularly when cells are dehydrated by exposure to dry atmospheres or to extracellular freezing.


Surface tension

Water has an unusually high
surface tension Surface tension is the tendency of liquid surfaces at rest to shrink into the minimum surface area possible. Surface tension is what allows objects with a higher density than water such as razor blades and insects (e.g. water striders) t ...
of 71.99 mN/m at 25 °C which is caused by the strength of the hydrogen bonding between water molecules. This allows insects to walk on water.


Capillary action

Because water has strong cohesive and adhesive forces, it exhibits capillary action. Strong cohesion from hydrogen bonding and adhesion allows trees to transport water more than 100 m upward.


Water as a solvent

Water is an excellent
solvent A solvent (s) (from the Latin '' solvō'', "loosen, untie, solve") is a substance that dissolves a solute, resulting in a solution. A solvent is usually a liquid but can also be a solid, a gas, or a supercritical fluid. Water is a solvent for ...
due to its high dielectric constant. Substances that mix well and dissolve in water are known as
hydrophilic A hydrophile is a molecule or other molecular entity that is attracted to water molecules and tends to be dissolved by water.Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. In contrast, hydrophobes are n ...
("water-loving") substances, while those that do not mix well with water are known as
hydrophobic In chemistry, hydrophobicity is the physical property of a molecule that is seemingly repelled from a mass of water (known as a hydrophobe). In contrast, hydrophiles are attracted to water. Hydrophobic molecules tend to be nonpolar and, ...
("water-fearing") substances. The ability of a substance to dissolve in water is determined by whether or not the substance can match or better the strong attractive forces that water molecules generate between other water molecules. If a substance has properties that do not allow it to overcome these strong intermolecular forces, the molecules are precipitated out from the water. Contrary to the common misconception, water and hydrophobic substances do not "repel", and the hydration of a hydrophobic surface is energetically, but not entropically, favorable. When an ionic or polar compound enters water, it is surrounded by water molecules (
hydration Hydration may refer to: * Hydrate, a substance that contains water * Hydration enthalpy, energy released through hydrating a substance * Hydration reaction, a chemical addition reaction where a hydroxyl group and proton are added to a compound * ...
). The relatively small size of water molecules (~ 3 angstroms) allows many water molecules to surround one molecule of solute. The partially negative dipole ends of the water are attracted to positively charged components of the solute, and vice versa for the positive dipole ends. In general, ionic and polar substances such as acids, alcohols, and
salt Salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl), a chemical compound belonging to the larger class of salts; salt in the form of a natural crystalline mineral is known as rock salt or halite. Salt is present in vast quant ...
s are relatively soluble in water, and nonpolar substances such as fats and oils are not. Nonpolar molecules stay together in water because it is energetically more favorable for the water molecules to hydrogen bond to each other than to engage in van der Waals interactions with non-polar molecules. An example of an ionic solute is table salt; the sodium chloride, NaCl, separates into cations and
anion An ion () is an atom or molecule with a net electrical charge. The charge of an electron is considered to be negative by convention and this charge is equal and opposite to the charge of a proton, which is considered to be positive by conve ...
s, each being surrounded by water molecules. The ions are then easily transported away from their crystalline lattice into solution. An example of a nonionic solute is
table sugar White sugar, also called table sugar, granulated sugar, or regular sugar, is a commonly used type of sugar, made either of beet sugar or cane sugar, which has undergone a refining process. Description The refining process completely removes t ...
. The water dipoles make hydrogen bonds with the polar regions of the sugar molecule (OH groups) and allow it to be carried away into solution.


Quantum tunneling

The quantum tunneling dynamics in water was reported as early as 1992. At that time it was known that there are motions which destroy and regenerate the weak
hydrogen bond In chemistry, a hydrogen bond (or H-bond) is a primarily electrostatic force of attraction between a hydrogen (H) atom which is covalently bound to a more electronegative "donor" atom or group (Dn), and another electronegative atom bearing a l ...
by internal rotations of the substituent water monomers. On 18 March 2016, it was reported that the hydrogen bond can be broken by quantum tunneling in the water hexamer. Unlike previously reported tunneling motions in water, this involved the concerted breaking of two hydrogen bonds. Later in the same year, the discovery of the quantum tunneling of water molecules was reported.


Electromagnetic absorption

Water is relatively transparent to
visible light Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 t ...
, near ultraviolet light, and far-red light, but it absorbs most
ultraviolet light Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30  PHz) to 400 nm (750  THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiatio ...
, infrared light, and
microwave Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths ranging from about one meter to one millimeter corresponding to frequencies between 300 MHz and 300 GHz respectively. Different sources define different frequency ra ...
s. Most photoreceptors and
photosynthetic pigment A photosynthetic pigment (accessory pigment; chloroplast pigment; antenna pigment) is a pigment that is present in chloroplasts or photosynthetic bacteria and captures the light energy necessary for photosynthesis. List of photosynthetic pi ...
s utilize the portion of the light spectrum that is transmitted well through water. Microwave ovens take advantage of water's opacity to microwave radiation to heat the water inside of foods. Water's light blue colour is caused by weak
absorption Absorption may refer to: Chemistry and biology *Absorption (biology), digestion **Absorption (small intestine) *Absorption (chemistry), diffusion of particles of gas or liquid into liquid or solid materials *Absorption (skin), a route by which s ...
in the red part of the
visible spectrum The visible spectrum is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that is visible to the human eye. Electromagnetic radiation in this range of wavelengths is called '' visible light'' or simply light. A typical human eye will respond to ...
.


Structure

A single water molecule can participate in a maximum of four
hydrogen bond In chemistry, a hydrogen bond (or H-bond) is a primarily electrostatic force of attraction between a hydrogen (H) atom which is covalently bound to a more electronegative "donor" atom or group (Dn), and another electronegative atom bearing a l ...
s because it can accept two bonds using the lone pairs on oxygen and donate two hydrogen atoms. Other molecules like
hydrogen fluoride Hydrogen fluoride (fluorane) is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . This colorless gas or liquid is the principal industrial source of fluorine, often as an aqueous solution called hydrofluoric acid. It is an important feedstock ...
, ammonia, and
methanol Methanol (also called methyl alcohol and wood spirit, amongst other names) is an organic chemical and the simplest aliphatic alcohol, with the formula C H3 O H (a methyl group linked to a hydroxyl group, often abbreviated as MeOH). It is ...
can also form hydrogen bonds. However, they do not show anomalous
thermodynamic Thermodynamics is a branch of physics that deals with heat, work, and temperature, and their relation to energy, entropy, and the physical properties of matter and radiation. The behavior of these quantities is governed by the four laws of ...
,
kinetic Kinetic (Ancient Greek: κίνησις “kinesis”, movement or to move) may refer to: * Kinetic theory, describing a gas as particles in random motion * Kinetic energy, the energy of an object that it possesses due to its motion Art and ent ...
, or structural properties like those observed in water because none of them can form four hydrogen bonds: either they cannot donate or accept hydrogen atoms, or there are
steric Steric effects arise from the spatial arrangement of atoms. When atoms come close together there is a rise in the energy of the molecule. Steric effects are nonbonding interactions that influence the shape ( conformation) and reactivity of ions ...
effects in bulky residues. In water, intermolecular tetrahedral structures form due to the four hydrogen bonds, thereby forming an open structure and a three-dimensional bonding network, resulting in the anomalous decrease in density when cooled below 4 °C. This repeated, constantly reorganizing unit defines a three-dimensional network extending throughout the liquid. This view is based upon neutron scattering studies and computer simulations, and it makes sense in the light of the unambiguously tetrahedral arrangement of water molecules in ice structures. However, there is an alternative theory for the structure of water. In 2004, a controversial paper from
Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, ...
suggested that water molecules in the liquid state typically bind not to four but only two others; thus forming chains and rings. The term "string theory of water" (which is not to be confused with the
string theory In physics, string theory is a theoretical framework in which the point-like particles of particle physics are replaced by one-dimensional objects called strings. String theory describes how these strings propagate through space and intera ...
of physics) was coined. These observations were based upon X-ray absorption spectroscopy that probed the local environment of individual oxygen atoms.


Molecular structure

The repulsive effects of the two lone pairs on the oxygen atom cause water to have a bent, not
linear Linearity is the property of a mathematical relationship ('' function'') that can be graphically represented as a straight line. Linearity is closely related to '' proportionality''. Examples in physics include rectilinear motion, the linear ...
, molecular structure, allowing it to be polar. The hydrogen–oxygen–hydrogen angle is 104.45°, which is less than the 109.47° for ideal sp3 hybridization. The valence bond theory explanation is that the oxygen atom's lone pairs are physically larger and therefore take up more space than the oxygen atom's bonds to the hydrogen atoms. The
molecular orbital theory In chemistry, molecular orbital theory (MO theory or MOT) is a method for describing the electronic structure of molecules using quantum mechanics. It was proposed early in the 20th century. In molecular orbital theory, electrons in a molec ...
explanation ( Bent's rule) is that lowering the energy of the oxygen atom's nonbonding hybrid orbitals (by assigning them more s character and less p character) and correspondingly raising the energy of the oxygen atom's hybrid orbitals bonded to the hydrogen atoms (by assigning them more p character and less s character) has the net effect of lowering the energy of the occupied molecular orbitals because the energy of the oxygen atom's nonbonding hybrid orbitals contributes completely to the energy of the oxygen atom's lone pairs while the energy of the oxygen atom's other two hybrid orbitals contributes only partially to the energy of the bonding orbitals (the remainder of the contribution coming from the hydrogen atoms' 1s orbitals).


Chemical properties


Self-ionization

In liquid water there is some self-ionization giving
hydronium In chemistry, hydronium (hydroxonium in traditional British English) is the common name for the aqueous cation , the type of oxonium ion produced by protonation of water. It is often viewed as the positive ion present when an Arrhenius acid ...
ions and
hydroxide Hydroxide is a diatomic anion with chemical formula OH−. It consists of an oxygen and hydrogen atom held together by a single covalent bond, and carries a negative electric charge. It is an important but usually minor constituent of water. ...
ions. :2 + The
equilibrium constant The equilibrium constant of a chemical reaction is the value of its reaction quotient at chemical equilibrium, a state approached by a dynamic chemical system after sufficient time has elapsed at which its composition has no measurable tendency ...
for this reaction, known as the ionic product of water, K_=[][] , has a value of about at 25 °C. At neutral pH, the concentration of the
hydroxide Hydroxide is a diatomic anion with chemical formula OH−. It consists of an oxygen and hydrogen atom held together by a single covalent bond, and carries a negative electric charge. It is an important but usually minor constituent of water. ...
ion () equals that of the (solvated) hydrogen ion (), with a value close to 10−7 mol L−1 at 25 °C. See data page for values at other temperatures. The thermodynamic equilibrium constant is a quotient of thermodynamic activities of all products and reactants including water: :K_ = \frac However for dilute solutions, the activity of a solute such as H3O+ or OH is approximated by its concentration, and the activity of the solvent H2O is approximated by 1, so that we obtain the simple ionic product K_ \approx K_=[][]


Geochemistry

The action of water on rock over long periods of time typically leads to weathering and water erosion, physical processes that convert solid rocks and minerals into soil and sediment, but under some conditions chemical reactions with water occur as well, resulting in metasomatism or
mineral hydration In chemistry, mineral hydration is an inorganic chemical reaction which adds water to the crystal structure of a mineral, usually creating a new mineral, usually called a '' hydrate''. In geological terms, the process of mineral hydration is ...
, a type of chemical alteration of a rock which produces
clay minerals Clay minerals are hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates (e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4), sometimes with variable amounts of iron, magnesium, alkali metals, alkaline earths, and other cations found on or near some planetary surfaces. Clay minera ...
. It also occurs when
Portland cement Portland cement is the most common type of cement in general use around the world as a basic ingredient of concrete, mortar, stucco, and non-specialty grout. It was developed from other types of hydraulic lime in England in the early 19t ...
hardens. Water ice can form
clathrate compounds A clathrate is a chemical substance consisting of a lattice that traps or contains molecules. The word ''clathrate'' is derived from the Latin (), meaning ‘with bars, latticed’. Most clathrate compounds are polymeric and completely envel ...
, known as clathrate hydrates, with a variety of small molecules that can be embedded in its spacious crystal lattice. The most notable of these is
methane clathrate Methane clathrate (CH4·5.75H2O) or (8CH4·46H2O), also called methane hydrate, hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas hydrate, or gas hydrate, is a solid clathrate compound (more specifically, a clathrate hydrate) in which a large amou ...
, 4 , naturally found in large quantities on the ocean floor.


Acidity in nature

Rain is generally mildly acidic, with a pH between 5.2 and 5.8 if not having any acid stronger than carbon dioxide. If high amounts of
nitrogen Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...
and
sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formul ...
oxides are present in the air, they too will dissolve into the cloud and raindrops, producing
acid rain Acid rain is rain or any other form of precipitation that is unusually acidic, meaning that it has elevated levels of hydrogen ions (low pH). Most water, including drinking water, has a neutral pH that exists between 6.5 and 8.5, but ac ...
.


Isotopologues

Several
isotope Isotopes are two or more types of atoms that have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), and that differ in nucleon numbers ( mass num ...
s of both hydrogen and oxygen exist, giving rise to several known isotopologues of water. Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water is the current international standard for water isotopes. Naturally occurring water is almost completely composed of the neutron-less hydrogen isotope protium. Only 155 ppm include
deuterium Deuterium (or hydrogen-2, symbol or deuterium, also known as heavy hydrogen) is one of two stable isotopes of hydrogen (the other being protium, or hydrogen-1). The nucleus of a deuterium atom, called a deuteron, contains one proton and one ...
( or D), a hydrogen isotope with one neutron, and fewer than 20 parts per quintillion include tritium ( or T), which has two neutrons. Oxygen also has three stable isotopes, with present in 99.76%, in 0.04%, and in 0.2% of water molecules. Deuterium oxide, , is also known as heavy water because of its higher density. It is used in
nuclear reactor A nuclear reactor is a device used to initiate and control a fission nuclear chain reaction or nuclear fusion reactions. Nuclear reactors are used at nuclear power plants for electricity generation and in nuclear marine propulsion. Heat fr ...
s as a
neutron moderator In nuclear engineering, a neutron moderator is a medium that reduces the speed of fast neutrons, ideally without capturing any, leaving them as thermal neutrons with only minimal (thermal) kinetic energy. These thermal neutrons are immensely m ...
. Tritium is
radioactive Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consi ...
, decaying with a
half-life Half-life (symbol ) is the time required for a quantity (of substance) to reduce to half of its initial value. The term is commonly used in nuclear physics to describe how quickly unstable atoms undergo radioactive decay or how long stable ...
of 4500 days; exists in nature only in minute quantities, being produced primarily via cosmic ray-induced nuclear reactions in the atmosphere. Water with one protium and one deuterium atom occur naturally in ordinary water in low concentrations (~0.03%) and in far lower amounts (0.000003%) and any such molecules are temporary as the atoms recombine. The most notable physical differences between and , other than the simple difference in specific mass, involve properties that are affected by hydrogen bonding, such as freezing and boiling, and other kinetic effects. This is because the nucleus of deuterium is twice as heavy as protium, and this causes noticeable differences in bonding energies. The difference in boiling points allows the isotopologues to be separated. The self-diffusion coefficient of at 25 °C is 23% higher than the value of . Because water molecules exchange hydrogen atoms with one another, hydrogen deuterium oxide (DOH) is much more common in low-purity heavy water than pure dideuterium monoxide . Consumption of pure isolated may affect biochemical processes—ingestion of large amounts impairs kidney and central nervous system function. Small quantities can be consumed without any ill-effects; humans are generally unaware of taste differences, but sometimes report a burning sensation or sweet flavor. Very large amounts of heavy water must be consumed for any toxicity to become apparent. Rats, however, are able to avoid heavy water by smell, and it is toxic to many animals. ''Light water'' refers to deuterium-depleted water (DDW), water in which the deuterium content has been reduced below the standard level.


Occurrence

Water is the most abundant substance on Earth and also the third most abundant molecule in the universe, after and . 0.23 ppm of the earth's mass is water and 97.39% of the global water volume of 1.38 km3 is found in the oceans.


Reactions


Acid-base reactions

Water is amphoteric: it has the ability to act as either an acid or a base in chemical reactions. According to the Brønsted-Lowry definition, an acid is a proton () donor and a base is a proton acceptor. When reacting with a stronger acid, water acts as a base; when reacting with a stronger base, it acts as an acid. For instance, water receives an ion from HCl when
hydrochloric acid Hydrochloric acid, also known as muriatic acid, is an aqueous solution of hydrogen chloride. It is a colorless solution with a distinctive pungent smell. It is classified as a strong acid. It is a component of the gastric acid in the dige ...
is formed: : + + In the reaction with
ammonia Ammonia is an inorganic compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . A stable binary hydride, and the simplest pnictogen hydride, ammonia is a colourless gas with a distinct pungent smell. Biologically, it is a common nitrogenous ...
, , water donates a ion, and is thus acting as an acid: : + + Because the oxygen atom in water has two
lone pair In chemistry, a lone pair refers to a pair of valence electrons that are not shared with another atom in a covalent bondIUPAC '' Gold Book'' definition''lone (electron) pair''/ref> and is sometimes called an unshared pair or non-bonding pair. L ...
s, water often acts as a
Lewis base A Lewis acid (named for the American physical chemist Gilbert N. Lewis) is a chemical species that contains an empty orbital which is capable of accepting an electron pair from a Lewis base to form a Lewis adduct. A Lewis base, then, is any sp ...
, or electron-pair donor, in reactions with Lewis acids, although it can also react with Lewis bases, forming hydrogen bonds between the electron pair donors and the hydrogen atoms of water. HSAB theory describes water as both a weak hard acid and a weak hard base, meaning that it reacts preferentially with other hard species: : + → : + → : + → When a salt of a weak acid or of a weak base is dissolved in water, water can partially
hydrolyze Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water is the nucleophile. Biological hydrolysis i ...
the salt, producing the corresponding base or acid, which gives aqueous solutions of
soap Soap is a salt of a fatty acid used in a variety of cleansing and lubricating products. In a domestic setting, soaps are surfactants usually used for washing, bathing, and other types of housekeeping. In industrial settings, soaps are us ...
and baking soda their basic pH: : + NaOH +


Ligand chemistry

Water's Lewis base character makes it a common
ligand In coordination chemistry, a ligand is an ion or molecule (functional group) that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex. The bonding with the metal generally involves formal donation of one or more of the ligand's elect ...
in
transition metal In chemistry, a transition metal (or transition element) is a chemical element in the d-block of the periodic table (groups 3 to 12), though the elements of group 12 (and less often group 3) are sometimes excluded. They are the elements that can ...
complexes, examples of which include metal aquo complexes such as to
perrhenic acid Perrhenic acid is the chemical compound with the formula . It is obtained by evaporating aqueous solutions of . Conventionally, perrhenic acid is considered to have the formula , and a species of this formula forms when rhenium(VII) oxide sublime ...
, which contains two water molecules coordinated to a rhenium center. In solid hydrates, water can be either a ligand or simply lodged in the framework, or both. Thus, consists of e2(H2O)6sup>2+ centers and one "lattice water". Water is typically a monodentate ligand, i.e., it forms only one bond with the central atom.


Organic chemistry

As a hard base, water reacts readily with organic
carbocation A carbocation is an ion with a positively charged carbon atom. Among the simplest examples are the methenium , methanium and vinyl cations. Occasionally, carbocations that bear more than one positively charged carbon atom are also encount ...
s; for example in a hydration reaction, a hydroxyl group () and an acidic proton are added to the two carbon atoms bonded together in the carbon-carbon double bond, resulting in an alcohol. When the addition of water to an organic molecule cleaves the molecule in two,
hydrolysis Hydrolysis (; ) is any chemical reaction in which a molecule of water breaks one or more chemical bonds. The term is used broadly for substitution, elimination, and solvation reactions in which water is the nucleophile. Biological hydrolysi ...
is said to occur. Notable examples of hydrolysis are the saponification of fats and the digestion of proteins and polysaccharides. Water can also be a leaving group in SN2 substitution and
E2 elimination An elimination reaction is a type of organic reaction in which two substituents are removed from a molecule in either a one- or two-step mechanism. The one-step mechanism is known as the E2 reaction, and the two-step mechanism is known as the E1 r ...
reactions; the latter is then known as a dehydration reaction.


Water in redox reactions

Water contains hydrogen in the
oxidation state In chemistry, the oxidation state, or oxidation number, is the hypothetical charge of an atom if all of its bonds to different atoms were fully ionic. It describes the degree of oxidation (loss of electrons) of an atom in a chemical compound. C ...
+1 and oxygen in the oxidation state −2. It oxidizes chemicals such as
hydrides In chemistry, a hydride is formally the anion of hydrogen( H−). The term is applied loosely. At one extreme, all compounds containing covalently bound H atoms are called hydrides: water (H2O) is a hydride of oxygen, ammonia is a hydride of ...
, alkali metals, and some
alkaline earth The alkaline earth metals are six chemical elements in group 2 of the periodic table. They are beryllium (Be), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), strontium (Sr), barium (Ba), and radium (Ra).. The elements have very similar properties: they are all ...
metals. One example of an alkali metal reacting with water is: :2 Na + 2 → + 2 + 2 Some other reactive metals, such as
aluminum Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It ha ...
and
beryllium Beryllium is a chemical element with the symbol Be and atomic number 4. It is a steel-gray, strong, lightweight and brittle alkaline earth metal. It is a divalent element that occurs naturally only in combination with other elements to for ...
, are oxidized by water as well, but their oxides adhere to the metal and form a passive protective layer. Note that the rusting of
iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in ...
is a reaction between iron and oxygen that is dissolved in water, not between iron and water. Water can be oxidized to emit oxygen gas, but very few oxidants react with water even if their reduction potential is greater than the potential of . Almost all such reactions require a
catalyst Catalysis () is the process of increasing the rate of a chemical reaction by adding a substance known as a catalyst (). Catalysts are not consumed in the reaction and remain unchanged after it. If the reaction is rapid and the catalyst recyc ...
. An example of the oxidation of water is: :4 + 2 → 4 AgF + 4 HF +


Electrolysis

Water can be split into its constituent elements, hydrogen, and oxygen, by passing an electric current through it. This process is called electrolysis. The cathode half reaction is: :2 + 2 → The anode half reaction is: : 2 → + 4 + 4 The gases produced bubble to the surface, where they can be collected or ignited with a flame above the water if this was the intention. The required potential for the electrolysis of pure water is 1.23 V at 25 °C. The operating potential is actually 1.48 V or higher in practical electrolysis.


History

Henry Cavendish showed that water was composed of oxygen and hydrogen in 1781. The first decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen, by
electrolysis In chemistry and manufacturing, electrolysis is a technique that uses direct electric current (DC) to drive an otherwise non-spontaneous chemical reaction. Electrolysis is commercially important as a stage in the separation of elements from n ...
, was done in 1800 by English chemist William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle. In 1805, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac and
Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister ...
showed that water is composed of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen. Gilbert Newton Lewis isolated the first sample of pure heavy water in 1933. The properties of water have historically been used to define various temperature scales. Notably, the
Kelvin The kelvin, symbol K, is the primary unit of temperature in the International System of Units (SI), used alongside its prefixed forms and the degree Celsius. It is named after the Belfast-born and University of Glasgow-based engineer and ...
, Celsius,
Rankine Rankine is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * William Rankine (1820–1872), Scottish engineer and physicist ** Rankine body an elliptical shape of significance in fluid dynamics, named for Rankine ** Rankine scale, an absolute-t ...
, and Fahrenheit scales were, or currently are, defined by the freezing and boiling points of water. The less common scales of Delisle, Newton, Réaumur, and Rømer were defined similarly. The
triple point In thermodynamics, the triple point of a substance is the temperature and pressure at which the three phases (gas, liquid, and solid) of that substance coexist in thermodynamic equilibrium.. It is that temperature and pressure at which the ...
of water is a more commonly used standard point today.


Nomenclature

The accepted
IUPAC The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...
name of water is ''oxidane'' or simply ''water'', or its equivalent in different languages, although there are other systematic names which can be used to describe the molecule. Oxidane is only intended to be used as the name of the mononuclear parent hydride used for naming derivatives of water by substituent nomenclature. These derivatives commonly have other recommended names. For example, the name
hydroxyl In chemistry, a hydroxy or hydroxyl group is a functional group with the chemical formula and composed of one oxygen atom covalently bonded to one hydrogen atom. In organic chemistry, alcohols and carboxylic acids contain one or more hydrox ...
is recommended over ''oxidanyl'' for the –OH group. The name oxane is explicitly mentioned by the IUPAC as being unsuitable for this purpose, since it is already the name of a cyclic ether also known as tetrahydropyran. The simplest systematic name of water is ''hydrogen oxide''. This is analogous to related compounds such as
hydrogen peroxide Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscous than water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usually as a dilute solution (3 ...
,
hydrogen sulfide Hydrogen sulfide is a chemical compound with the formula . It is a colorless chalcogen-hydride gas, and is poisonous, corrosive, and flammable, with trace amounts in ambient atmosphere having a characteristic foul odor of rotten eggs. The under ...
, and deuterium oxide (heavy water). Using chemical nomenclature for type I ionic binary compounds, water would take the name ''hydrogen monoxide'', but this is not among the names published by the
International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC ) is an international federation of National Adhering Organizations working for the advancement of the chemical sciences, especially by developing nomenclature and terminology. It is ...
(IUPAC). Another name is ''dihydrogen monoxide'', which is a rarely used name of water, and mostly used in the dihydrogen monoxide parody. Other systematic names for water include ''hydroxic acid'', ''hydroxylic acid'', and ''hydrogen hydroxide'', using acid and base names. None of these exotic names are used widely. The polarized form of the water molecule, , is also called hydron hydroxide by IUPAC nomenclature. ''Water substance'' is a term used for hydrogen oxide (H2O) when one does not wish to specify whether one is speaking of liquid
water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...
,
steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...
, some form of ice, or a component in a mixture or mineral.


See also

* Chemical bonding of water * Dihydrogen monoxide parody *
Double distilled water Purified water is water that has been mechanically filtered or processed to remove impurities and make it suitable for use. Distilled water was, formerly, the most common form of purified water, but, in recent years, water is more frequently puri ...
* Electromagnetic absorption by water *
Fluid dynamics In physics and engineering, fluid dynamics is a subdiscipline of fluid mechanics that describes the flow of fluids— liquids and gases. It has several subdisciplines, including ''aerodynamics'' (the study of air and other gases in motion) a ...
* Hard water * Heavy water *
Hydrogen polyoxide Hydrogen polyoxides (also known as oxidanes, oxohydrogens, or oxyhydrogens) are chemical compounds that consist only of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, are bonded exclusively by single bonds (i.e., they are saturated), and are acyclic (have molecular ...
* Ice * Optical properties of water and ice *
Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...
* Superheated water * * Water cluster * Water (data page) * Water dimer * Water model * Water thread experiment


Footnotes


References


Notes


Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

*


External links

*
Release on the IAPWS Formulation 1995 for the Thermodynamic Properties of Ordinary Water Substance for General and Scientific Use
(simpler formulation)

* * Calculation of ttp://ddbonline.ddbst.de/AntoineCalculation/AntoineCalculationCGI.exe?component=Water vapor pressurebr>liquid densitydynamic liquid viscosity
an
surface tension
of water
Water Density Calculator


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{{DEFAULTSORT:Properties Of Water
Water Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...
Forms of water Hydrogen compounds Oxygen compounds Hydroxides Inorganic solvents Neutron moderators Oxides Water chemistry, Limnology Oceanography Extraterrestrial water Transport phenomena Heat transfer Greenhouse gases