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The hydrogen fluoride, HF, molecule is polar by virtue of polar covalent bonds – in the covalent bond electrons are displaced toward the more electronegative fluorine atom. The ammonia molecule, NH 3, is polar as a result of its molecular geometry. The red represents partially negatively charged regions.
An ubiquitous example of a hydrogen bond is found between water molecules. In a discrete water molecule, there are two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. The simplest case is a pair of water molecules with one hydrogen bond between them, which is called the water dimer and is often used as a model system. When more molecules are present, as is ...
The figure shows methane (CH 4), in which each hydrogen forms a covalent bond with the carbon. See sigma bonds and pi bonds for LCAO descriptions of such bonding. [22] Molecules that are formed primarily from non-polar covalent bonds are often immiscible in water or other polar solvents, but much more soluble in non-polar solvents such as hexane.
The polarity is due to the electronegativity of the atom of oxygen: oxygen is more electronegative than the atoms of hydrogen, so the electrons they share through the covalent bonds are more often close to oxygen rather than hydrogen. These are called polar covalent bonds, covalent bonds between atoms that thus become oppositely charged. [1]
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 and boiling point temperatures: more energy is required to break the hydrogen bonds between water molecules.
Intermolecular hydrogen bonding is responsible for the high boiling point of water (100 °C) compared to the other group 16 hydrides, which have little capability to hydrogen bond. Intramolecular hydrogen bonding is partly responsible for the secondary, tertiary, and quaternary structures of proteins and nucleic acids.
A solid with extensive hydrogen bonding will be considered a molecular solid, yet strong hydrogen bonds can have a significant degree of covalent character. As noted above, covalent and ionic bonds form a continuum between shared and transferred electrons; covalent and weak bonds form a continuum between shared and unshared electrons.
The bond energy is significantly weaker than those of Cl 2 or Br 2 molecules and similar to the easily cleaved oxygen–oxygen bonds of peroxides or nitrogen–nitrogen bonds of hydrazines. [8] The covalent radius of fluorine of about 71 picometers found in F 2 molecules is significantly larger than that in other compounds because of this weak ...