What is the bond between an oxygen atom and a hydrogen atom in a water molecule?

Answer 1

All chemical bonds are a compromise between two needs of the atom: # To have as many electrons in orbit about it as there are protons in its nucelous. # To have each electron orbital filled with two electrons (the Pauli exclusion principle.) Or to have it empty. Rule number two is the source of all ions. Hydrogen for example can have a plus one ion H+, that is it will get rid of the single electron it has and live with a net positive charge just so its single electron orbital can be empty. And Hydrogen can have a negetive one ion H-, that is its electron orbital will aquire an additional electron just so the orbital will be filled and it will live with a net negative charge. This is the source of all ionic compounds. NaCl for example has a positively charged Sodium ion (Na+) and a negetively charged Chlorine ion (Cl-) and the two ions stick to each other because of their opposite charges. (Electro-static attraction) With covalent bonding compounds there isn't such a love-hate relationship between electrons (Sodium hates its 'extra' electron and gives it up to become a positive ion, and Chlorine loves its 'extra' electron and accepts it to become a negetive ion.) Instead both atoms like their electrons equally and decide to share them instead of rejecting/recieving them. For example Hydrogen has one electron and (by rule one) is content (electro-statically balanced) with it, although (by rule two) would like to have another electron in its orbital to fill it. Oxygen has eight electrons and (by rule one) is content with it, although it has two electron orbitals that have only one electron in them*. It would like these two orbitals to be filled (two electrons to each orbital) and sometimes this is what it does and becomes a doubly negative ion O-2. But what if there isn't a positively charged ion around to be had. What if all there was, was other atoms (like hydrogen) that love/hate their electrons pretty near as much as oxygen does? Well! What happens is one hydrogen atom (with its half filled orbital) approaches one of oxygen's half filled orbitals and says 'why don't we share our lone electrons and pretend that we both have two?' And this is what happens. The result is a covalent bond where two electrons are satisfying the needs (rule two) of two atoms where really four electrons would be required. (Oxygen does this twice of course, that why there are two hydrogen atoms for every oxygen atoms in water.) * You may wonder 'Why doesn't one oxygen orbital give up its electron and let it get accepted by the other orbital so one is empty and the other is full - with no electro=static inbalance and therefore no need to produce bonds?' The answer is a matter of energy levels. The 'spread out' distribution of electrons has lower energy state (desirable) than the empty/filled one - so that is where it sits.

Answer 2

Hydrogen Bonds bond H2O together, they also have strong molecular forces they contain all three, London dispersion forces, Dipole-Dipole and of course hydrogen bonding. This is also the reason H2O has a very high boiling point and a low vapor pressure, this is due to the strong bonds that hold H2O together.

Answer 3

In a single molecule of water 2 hydrogen atoms are bonded to a single oxygen atom by?

Answer 4

The bond between oxygen and hydrogen in the same molecule is a covalent bond. The bond between a hydrogen atom and oxygen atom in different molecules is a hydrogen bond.

Answer 5

Two covalent bonds (shaired pairs of electrons) between the central oxygen atom and the two hydrogen atoms

Answer 6

The covalent bond.

Answer 7

hydrogen bond

Answer 8

The chemical bond in water is covalent.