Life is feasible on earth because of the presence of water. Nearly three-fourths of the earth’s surface is blanketed with water. Water is likewise found underneath the earth’s surface. It is found in air within the shape of water vapour. About 70 percent of the human body is consists of water and the bodies of all plants and animals contain water. In general, water can be characterized by five main properties: universal solvent, high specific heat capacity, surface tension, boiling point and freezing point, and high polarity. (refer to Figure 1 in Appendix 1).
First of all, one of the properties of water is act as universal solvent. Water transport nutrients and waste products into and out of tissues of residing organisms as maximum biological substances are only feasible to be transported in aqueous medium. However, for the beyond time, the water became no longer claimed to be the conventional solvent. As mentioned by Franks (1973), experimental studies of the physical and inorganic chemistry of answers were restricted almost truly to aqueous systems and solution theories were in huge component primarily based on consequences so received. Consequently, the solutions no longer constantly be aqueous, and that the study of other solvent media should be more likely to help within the elucidation of solvent-solute interactions in condensed stages. Due the polarity of each water molecule, the hydrogen element of each water (H2O) molecule incorporates a moderate excessive exact ionic price, at the same time as the oxygen facet contains a slight ionic fee. The effective a part of an ionic compound is drawn to the oxygen component of water whilst the poor part of the compound is interested in the hydrogen side of the water.
Next , the second property of water is it has high polarity. Water molecule consists of one oxygen atom and hydrogen atoms. Oxygen has a totally excessive electronegativity, meaning it has a completely excessive affinity for electrons. The oxygen in water molecules attract the electrons from the hydrogen atoms close to to it, create poles in the molecule, in which the hydrogen stop is partly nice and the oxygen give up is in part poor and that conclude the polarity of water this is it have an uneven fees inside the water molecules.Water also can be known as amphoteric substance because it could act as either a base or and acid due to its charges that are H+ and OH-..The polarity of water molecules can justify why sure traits of water exist, consisting of its capability to fade out other substances which include sodium chloride and also known as desk salt, and the sturdy bonds that preserve the molecules together. Aside from that ,as the result of the polarity of the water molecule, the strong nation is less dense than the liquid kingdom.As a result, ice floats, and this has profound implications for life anywhere on this planet. besides, due to their polarity, water molecules are strongly attracted to each other, which gives water a high surface tension.The electrostatic enchantment of water molecules for every different creates the phenomenon of surface tension, where in the surface of liquid water bureaucracy a barrier upon which sure insects can really stroll. Surface tension reasons water to clump in drops in preference to spreading out in a thin layer. It additionally lets in water to transport through plant roots and stems and the smallest blood vessels in the body.(Deziel, 2018). These characteristics not only help to maintain life through biochemical processes, but also create the preferable environments that sustain life.
The third property of water is it has high specific heat capacity. The heat of water is the amount of heat needed to raise its temperature a certain amount. One of water’s most significant properties is that it takes a lot of heat to it to make it get hot. Its high specific heat plays a very important role as it is able to absorb a lot of heat without a significant rise in the temperature. When temperature decrease,the heat which is stored is released,restraining a rapid drop in temperature. The combined effect of these processes is a buffering of temperature on the earth. Precisely, water has to absorb 4,184 Joules of heat for the temperature of one kilogram of water to increase 1 degree celsius (°C). The high heat capacity of water has a great deal to do with regulating extremes in the environment.Its usually affect the marines especially the fishes in the pond,lake or river. The heat capacity of the water in pond,river or lake above means the temperature of the water will stay relatively the same from day to night. This help the marine creatures to maintain their body temperature (Gruber, 2011).
The forth property is surface tension. Surface tension of water is the appealing force exerted upon the surface molecules of a liquid via the molecules beneath that has a tendency to draw the surface molecule into the bulk of the liquid. Surface tension explain many critical roles in lots of phenomena surround us which includes the shape of the rain drop, capacity of insect(water strider) to stroll at the floor of water and early morning dew drops.This actually happen due to the cohesive pressure among the water molecules that maintain them in all aspect collectively. floor anxiety of water can be growth and decrease with the aid of including a sure substance together with detergent. Addition of detergent will lessen the surface tension of water. That is why detergent were used to easy our garments, the surface tension of water had been decreased in a good way to more effortlessly soaks into pores and dirty regions. The surface tension of water commonly measured in Newton in keeping with meter(N/m) or dyne per centimeter (dyn/cm) and the value may be calculated by means of the usage of gamma equals force(F) divided by using duration system(d) (Zhakarov, Brodskaya, and Laaksonen, 1997).Gamma represent surface tension, F represents force, and d represents the length along which the force is felt.
The last property of water is high boiling point and low freezing point. Boiling point is the temperature at which a liquid boil and turns to vapour and freezing point is the temperature at which a liquid freeze and turns to stable which means that water need to takes or do away with a plenty of electricity to raising or reducing temperature. The high boiling point and occasional freezing point of water is the maximum important thing in our lives when the water was consider as a shipping medium in human circulatory device and vascular plant, without this assets water can be effortlessly evaporated at low temperature and freeze at excessive temperature, human also will effortlessly hydrated at room temperature due to low boiling point of water. The excessive boiling point and low freezing factor of water is due to the formation of the hydrogen bond inside the water molecule that is hydrogen atom bonded with one oxygen atom(Pauling, 1960) and between water molecules H2O.A water molecule can form a maximum of 4 Hydrogen bonds(Moore and Winmill, 1912) that increases the effective size of water molecules too, which in turn increases the van der Waals forces operating in water molecules. As a result of we need to supply more temperature for water to boil, or change from liquid state to vapour state and really low temperature required to to freeze it,or change from it liquid states to solid states.These property can be distract by adding a certain substance such as salt(Sodium Chloride).When salt were added into water,it will be ionize into sodium and chloride ions,these ions then form an ionic bond with hydroxide ion and hydrogen ion. Ionic bond is much stronger than Hydrogen bond between the water molecules,hence more energy required to break this bond.
In conclusion, water can be characterized into 5 main major properties which are universal solvent, high specific heat capacity, surface tension, boiling point and freezing point, and high polarity.