The Chemical Basis for Life

Unique Properties of Water

Lesson Objectives

• Describe the distribution of Earth’s water and outline the water cycle.

• Identify water’s unique properties that support life on Earth. • Identify the chemical structure of water, and explain how it

relates to water’s unique properties.• Define solution, and describe water’s role as a solvent.• State how water is used to define acids and bases, and identify the pH ranges of acids and bases.• Explain why water is essential for life processes.

Introduction

• Water is biologically important…

• H2O is a simple molecule, but it has some very unique properties…

WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE

• Common chemical substance on Earth

• ‘Water’ refers to it in a liquid state

• Also can ba a solid (ice) or gas (water vapor)

Where Is All the Water?

• Water covers about 75% of Earth’s surface– 97% of this water is salt water– Only 3% is freshwater

• Most of the freshwater is frozen in glaciers and the polar ice caps

• About 2% of water is stored in underground spaces

How Water Recycles

• Water is continuously recycled

• Cycle keeps repeating

CHEMICAL STRUCTURE AND PROPERTIES OF WATER

• Water is tasteless, odorless, and transparent

• The transparency of water is important for organisms that live in water. – sunlight can pass through it– sunlight is needed by water plants and other water

organisms for photosynthesis

Chemical Structure of Water• Chemical formula H2O• Nucleus of the oxygen atom (8 positively charged

protons) attracts electrons much more strongly than do the hydrogen nuclei (1 positively charged proton). This results in a negative electrical charge near the oxygen atom (due to the ”pull” of the negatively charged electrons toward the oxygen nucleus) and a positive electrical charge near the hydrogen atoms.

• A difference in electrical charge between different parts of a molecule is called polarity.

SOLUTIONS

• Homogeneous mixture composed of two or more substances

• One substance is dissolved (solute) in another substance (solvent), forming a mixture that has the same proportion of substances throughout

• The ability of a solute to dissolve in a particular solvent is called solubility.

• Many chemical substances are soluble in water; thus water is known as the universal solvent.

Sticky, Wet Water• Water has unusual properties due to its hydrogen

bonds; water molecules tend to stick together. • If you drop a tiny amount of water onto a very smooth

surface, the water molecules will stick together and form a droplet, rather than spread out over the surface; this is called cohesion.

• Water also sticks to other substances because of its unique bonding properties; this is called adhesion.

Cohesion

• Cohesion is the attraction of one molecule to a similar molecule. Water molecules form droplets because of this principle.

Adhesion

• When a molecule is attracted to a different molecule, it is called adhesion. Water sticks to other substances.

Surface Tension

• Water's surface, molecules pulled from side to side and down only– Result: skin of water at the surface in which the

molecules are held tightly together.

• Surface tension: measurement of the amount of force required to break this skin on the surface of water.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45yabrnryXk

Capillarity

• Check out the demonstration of capillarity!

Use cohesion andadhesion to explain what is happening & WHY!

Quick Review of Info…

• Water– cohesion, adhesion, polarity, solvency

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAilC0sjvy0

• Surface Tension & Capillary Action

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOOY1szbcX4

Specific Heat• Water has a high specific heat; takes a lot of

energy to raise or lower its temperature – Specific heat is a measure in joules of how much

energy it takes to raise the temperature of 1 gram of a substance by 1°C.

• Every substance has its own specific heat capacity, the specific heat capacity of water is much higher than that of other common liquid substances.

Density of Ice and Water

• Water in a solid state has a lower density than water in a liquid state; water expands when it freezes. – Hydrogen bonds cause water molecules to line up less efficiently in ice

than in liquid water. As a result, water molecules are spaced farther apart in ice, giving ice a lower density than liquid water.

– A substance with lower density floats on a substance with higher density. This explains why ice floats on liquid water, whereas many other solids sink to the bottom of liquid water.

• In a large body of water, such as a lake or the ocean, the water with the greatest density always sinks to the bottom. Water is most dense at about 4° C (39.2°F). – In climates with cold winters, this layer of 4° C water insulates the

bottom of a lake from freezing temperatures. – Lake organisms such as fish can survive the winter by staying in this

cold, but unfrozen, water at the bottom of the lake.

WATER AND LIFE

• Humans are composed of about 70% water• Water’s ability to dissolve most biologically

significant compounds—from inorganic salts to large organic molecules—makes it a vital solvent inside organisms and cells.

• As a result, virtually all life processes depend on water.

• Without water, life as we know it could not exist

WATER ACTS LIKE A BUFFER• Defined: substance that helps to moderate any

changes in pH that result from the addition of acids or bases.

• Importance: most chemical processes that occur in living organisms are highly sensitive to pH, and drastic changes in pH can cause some serious trouble.

• Water, can act like a buffer if there is a sudden change in pH.

• HOW you ask????

• Water disassociates into hydrogen (H+)and hydroxide (OH-) ions constantly.– dissociated water molecules are what give water its

buffering ability.

• If we add an acid to solution, some of the free OH- ions will bind to the newly added H+ ions, which will moderate the decrease in pH.

• If we add a whole bunch of base to the solution, some of the added base will bind to the free H+

ions in solution, which will moderate the increase in pH.

• HOWEVER, WATER CANNOT BUFFER EXTREMELY DRASTIC CHANGES IN pH

• Think of it as a mathematical equation with positive and negative integers:

• For example:

-13 + 2 = -11

So if you take a base with a pH of 13 (filled with OH- ions) and increase the amount of positive H+ ions in the solution the base’s pH will drop down to 11 making it less alkaline

Acids and Bases

• Pure water is the solvent in solutions called acids and bases.

• In pure water (such as distilled water), a tiny fraction of water molecules naturally breaks down, or dissociates, to form ions. – An ion is an electrically charged atom or

molecule. The dissociation of pure water into ions is represented by the chemical equation:

2 H2O → H3O+ + OH-

Acids, Bases and pH• The hydronium ions in pure water are balanced by

hydroxide ions, so pure water is neutral (neither an acid nor a base). This gives pure water a pH of 7.

• If a solution has a higher concentration of hydronium ions and lower pH than pure water, it is called an acid.

• If a solution has a lower concentration of hydronium ions and higher pH than pure water, it is called a base.

The pH Scale

• Ranges from 0 to 14• The pH scale is a negative logarithmic

scale; as the ion concentration increases, the pH value decreases. In other words, the more acidic the solution, the lower the pH value.

• Each one-point change in pH reflects a ten-fold change in the hydronium ion concentration and acidity. – For example, a solution with a pH of 6

is ten times as acidic as pure water with a pH of 7.

• Acids have a pH less than 7, and bases have a pH greater than 7.

Acids• Defined as a hydrogen ion donor

• Acids have a sour taste and may sting or burn the skin.

• Testing solutions with litmus paper is an easy way to identify acids. Acids turn blue litmus paper red.

Bases

• Defined as a hydrogen ion acceptor

• Bases have a bitter taste and feel slimy to the touch. They can also burn the skin.

• Bases, like acids, can be identified with litmus paper. Bases turn red litmus paper blue.

Quick Review of How Acids and Bases Form

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zGHCyFhZk0v=6zGHCyFhZk0

Acids and Bases in Organisms

• Enzymes do their job within a specific range of pH and are needed to speed up biochemical reactions. – For example, the enzyme pepsin, which helps break down proteins

in the human stomach, requires a very acidic environment in order to function.

– Strong acid is secreted into the stomach, allowing pepsin to work.

• Once the contents of the stomach enter the small intestine, where most digestion occurs, the acid must be neutralized. Enzymes that work in the small intestine need a basic environment. – An organ near the small intestine, called the pancreas, secretes

bicarbonate ions (HCO3-) into the small intestine to neutralize the

stomach acid.

Neutralization• What do you think would happen if you mixed an acid

and a base?• ‘‘Cancel each other out”, causing a neutralization

reaction– For example, when the base sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and

hydrochloric acid (HCl) react, they form a neutral solution of water and the salt sodium chloride (NaCl). This reaction is represented by the chemical equation:

NaOH + HCl → NaCl + H2O.– In this reaction, hydroxide ions (OH-) from the base combine

with hydrogen ions (H+) from the acid to form water. The other ions in the solution (Na+) and (Cl-) combine to form sodium chloride.

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Lesson Summary• Most of Earth’s water is salt water located on the planet’s

surface. Water is constantly recycled through the water cycle.• Water molecules are polar, so they form hydrogen bonds. This

gives water unique properties, such as a relatively high boiling point.

• A solution is a homogeneous mixture in which a solute dissolves in a solvent. Water is a very common solvent, especially in organisms.

• The ion concentration of neutral, pure water gives water a pH of 7 and sets the standard for defining acids and bases. Acids have a pH lower than 7, and bases have a pH higher than 7.

• Water is essential for most life processes, including photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and other important chemical reactions that occur in organisms.