The Biological Importance of Water as a Solvent and as a Medium for Living Organisms, including State and Specific Heat Capacity.

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The Biological Importance of Water as a Solvent and as a Medium for Living Organisms, including State and Specific Heat Capacity.

Water is essential to life itself; with out water life on earth would not exist. Water is a major component of cells, typically forming between 70 and 95% of the mass of the cell. This means that we are made from approximately 80% water by mass. Water also provides an environment for organisms to live in, 75% of the earth is covered in water.

Water has a simple molecular structure. It is composed of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. Each hydrogen atom is covalently bonded to the oxygen via a shared pair of electrons. Oxygen also has two unshared pairs of electrons. Thus there are 4 pairs of electrons surrounding the oxygen atom, two pairs involved in covalent bonds with hydrogen, and two unshared pairs on the opposite side of the oxygen atom.

Water is a "polar" molecule, meaning that there is an uneven distribution of electron density. Water has a partial negative charge near the oxygen atom due the unshared pairs of electrons, and partial positive charges near the hydrogen atoms.

The ability of ions and other molecules to dissolve in water is due to polarity. For example, in the illustration below sodium chloride is shown in its crystalline form and dissolved in water.

Many other unique properties of water are due to the hydrogen bonds. For example, ice floats because hydrogen bonds hold water molecules further apart in a solid than in a liquid, where there is one less hydrogen bond per molecule. The unique physical properties, including a high heat of vaporization, strong surface tension, high specific heat, and nearly universal solvent properties of water are also due to hydrogen bonding. The hydrophobic effect or the exclusion of compounds containing carbon and hydrogen (non-polar compounds) is another unique property of water caused by the hydrogen bonds. The hydrophobic effect is particularly important in the formation of cell membranes. The best description is to say that water "squeezes" non-polar molecules together.

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Water also has many thermal properties as a temperature stabilizer. Water has a boiling point of 100oC and a melting point of 0oC; this is unusual for a molecule of its size because other molecules of a similar size such as CO2 and ammonia are all gaseous at room temperature whereas water is a liquid. This is because of the hydrogen bonds which hold the water molecules in a liquid state.
Water also has a high specific heat capacity, the result of this is that it takes about 4.2 Joules of energy to raise one gram of water by 1oC. ...

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