What is Hydrogen Bonding? Explain its nature Give examples of hydrogen bonding. What do you understand by hydrogen bonding? Discuss its nature and consequences with examples. Hydrogen bonding refers to the formation of hydrogen bonds, a special class of attractive intermolecular forces that arise due to the dipole-dipole interaction between a hydrogen atom and a highly electronegative atom. This blog is written by one of my students Ritika Rathore, a B.Sc first-year student. Thanks, Ritika
What is Hydrogen Bonding? explain its nature and give an example of a hydrogen bond
Another highly electronegative atom is located in the vicinity. of the hydrogen atoms. For example, in water molecules (H2O), hydrogen is covalently attached to the more electronegative oxygen atom.
Therefore, the hydrogen bond in water molecules arises due to the dipole-dipole interactions between the hydrogen atom of one water molecule and the oxygen atom of the other H2O molecule.
Here, the location of the bond pairs of electrons in the O–H bond is very close to the oxygen nucleus (due to the large difference in electronegativity of oxygen and hydrogen). Therefore, the oxygen atom develops a partial negative charge (-δ).
And the hydrogen atom develops a partial positive charge (+δ). Now, hydrogen bonding can occur due to electrostatic attraction between the hydrogen atom of one water molecule (with +δ charge) and the oxygen atom (with -δ charge) of another water molecule.
Thus, hydrogen bonds are a very special class of intermolecular attractive forces that arise only in compounds characterized by hydrogen atoms bonded to a highly electronegative atom.
Hydrogen bonds are mostly stronger than normal dipole-dipole and dispersion forces.
However, they are weaker than true covalent or ionic bonds.
Types of Hydrogen Bonds:
i) Inter-molecular hydrogen bonding.
ii) Intermolecular hydrogen bonding.
