what is primarily responsible for the surface tension in water?

Answer 1

Adjacent water molecules attract each other weakly; the negative oxygen atom attracts the positive hydrogen atoms in nearby water molecules. So a water molecule inside a body of water is attracted equally in all directions by surrounding water molecules. But a water molecule on the surface is only attracted by molecules inside the mass of water and by surrounding surface water molecules. So the surface molecules behave like an elastic skin.

Answer 2

Hydrogen bonding is largely responsible for the surface tension in water.
Hydrogen bonding is a weak (approx 20 kj/mol ) force of attraction between the partial negative charge on a N O or F atom covalently bound to a hydrogen and the partial positive charge on the H atom covalently bound to an N O or F atom. Hence water behaves as it does because of the many available hydogen bonding sites. At the surface of water the hydrogen bonds are arranged slightly differently to underneath the water (underneath the water each water molecule is surrounded typically by four other water molecules, at the surface they are surrounded by two.) this creates surface tension!

Answer 3

The surface tension of water is caused by the attraction of water molecules to
each other