Apedia

A-Level Biology OCR A

Polar Oxygen Hydrogen Share Nucleus Water Electrons Positive

Water is polar because oxygen's greater electronegativity causes unequal sharing of electrons, resulting in a partial negative charge on oxygen and partial positive charges on hydrogen.

Water is a polar molecule because its oxygen and hydrogen atoms share electrons unequally due to oxygen's higher electronegativity, creating a slight negative charge on the oxygen and a slight positive charge on the hydrogens.

Front Explain why water is a polar molecule.
Back Water as a polar molecule
  • Oxygen and hydrogen atoms are bonded covalently - they share electrons
  • Because oxygen has a larger positive nucleus, the electrons are shared unequally and they spend more time closer to it than the small nucleus of hydrogen which means the bond is polar
  • This causes the oxygen to become slightly negative because it has a greater share of negative electrons, meaning the hydrogen will be slightly positive (positive nucleus which has a smaller share of electrons)

Learn with these flashcards. Click next, previous, or up to navigate to more flashcards for this subject.

Next card: Define term electronegativity   the tendency atom molecule draw

Previous card: Draw water molecules label bond links

Up to card list: A-Level Biology OCR A