why are hydrogen bonds really strong like in water?

Question

they say that if water didn't have these hydrogen bonds it would be a gas. So why are they so strong that it takes a lot of heat to evaporate?

Answer 1

I'm a junior in high school and I am currently enrolled in Ap Chemistry. The reason why water is a liquid at room temperature because of hydrogen bonding is sort of hard to explain. The main thing you need to know is that water is made out of h20 and since it is a bent molecule(the structure of it) it is polar and therefore more if it comes into contact with other molecules it will have a slight attraction to it. The hydrogen part of the molecule is the part of the molecule in which the attraction is created therefore they call it hydrogen bonding. The concept of hydrogen bonding is under the theory of Vanderwaal's forces( you can google this term if my answer does not make sense) Since the h20 are attracted to each other they readily are not turn to gas because it takes alot more energy to turn them to a gas. That is why water would be a gas if it were not for hydrogen bondings.

I may not have explained it throughly but hopefully it helped.

If you are interested in the hydrogen bonding you should really read up on London Dispersion forces

Answer 2

Ugh I don't like any of these answers as written. I am a real chemist so let me break it down. And it is not hard to explain or whatever it is actually very intuitive.

SO electronegative elements (electronegativity is listed on many periodic tables) which are usually found toward the upper right of the periodic table, is a measure of in a bond how badly they want electron density around them. When they bond with elements of weaker electronegativity like Oxygen bonding with hydrogen they essesntially to varying degrees "hog" the electron (if they do it all the way, 100% "hog" it, then it becomes an ionic bond). Well electrons are negatively charged so in this case of water the oxygen gets a partially negative charge on it and the Hydrogens have a partial positive charge. WELL, in chemistry positive and negative attract eachother. So essentially water tends to stick to other water and they tend to form elaborate structure especially at lower temperature, in the presence of solutes, and in ice.

Hydrogen bonds which is what I just described above are actually quite weak relative to other bonds. But there are so many of them they add up.

Especially the way water forms a surface the structure of it is what makes it so robust to evqptoration and take a lot of energy. T

Answer 3

hydrogen bonds arestronger than vanderwalls forces .they are weak than a covalent bond .ths bond is only present in a few compounds.they are only between hydrogen and highly electro negative elements ie.nitrogen, flourine and oxygen.this is formed in a compound or among the compounds.the bond between h2 and highly electronegative elements.gives the extra stability to the compounds like H2O ,HF etc.so boiling points increase.