BIOL 2021 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Chemical Polarity, Intracellular Ph, Molecular Geometry
Document Summary
Water is a unique solvent whose properties are extremely important to biochemistry. In water, the hydrogen atoms have a partial positive charge, and the oxygen atoms have a partial negative charge. Water is a dipole because of its geometry and the difference in electronegativity between hydrogen and oxygen. Oxygen is sp3 hybridized; tetrahedral electron geometry; bent molecular geometry. The polar nature and geometry of the water molecule allows water molecules to form hydrogen bonds with each other and with dissolved hydrophilic substances. Hydrogen bonds between water molecules= electrostatic attraction between the oxygen atom of one water and the hydrogen of another. Water can also form hydrogen bonds with functional groups of hydrophilic (polar or ionic) biomolecules and organic compounds. hydrogen bond donors hydrogen bond acceptors. Noncovalent interactions: relatively weak and reversible: hydrogen bonds: special dipole-dipole interaction (electronegative atom (e. g. o or n) interacts with h atom that is partially positive (i. e. attached to n, o, f)
