Can you explain hydrogen bonding?

Hydrogen bonding is a type of dipole-dipole interaction (dipole being when a molecule has unequal sharing of electrons across a bond). It is a particularly strong type dipole-dipole interaction and can only occur between oxygen/fluorine/nitrogen and hydrogen due to the large difference in electronegativity between these atoms (electronegativity being a measure of how strong an affinity some atom has for a bonding pair of electrons). For example in a water molecule the oxygen atom attracts the shared pair of electrons to itself, away from the hydrogen, as oxygen has the greater electronegativity. This results in the oxygen atom having a slight negative while the hydrogen atom slight positive charge. As a result hydrogen bonding can effect properties such as the solubility of molecules in water or other solvents.

DD

Related Chemistry Scottish Highers answers

All answers ▸

a.) What is the definition of ionisation energy? b.) Explain trends in ionisation energy within the periodic table


A student obtained 3.7g of methyl cinnamate (162g/mol) from 6.5g of cinnamic acid (148g/mol) and 2.0g of methanol (32g/mol). Determine which reagent is limiting and calculate the percentage yield achieved by the student.


How do I explain that the breakdown of an ester is a hydrolysis reaction?


What is chirality?