Science, asked by Kaldeep, 1 year ago

If oxygen is present in dissolved form in water then fishes use it to breathe and release hydrogen now water contains hydrogen then why does water doesn't catch fire?

Answers

Answered by KGB
1
Oxygen does not burn, it only facilitates the burning. Hydrogen is the fuel that is combusted, as it is oxidized by oxygen.

The weak H-H bond in hydrogen is broken, as well as the O=O double bond in oxygen. This involves hydrogen losing its valence electrons to the oxygen atom to form a covalent bond, in the form H-O-H. When covalent bonds are formed, energy is released - this is what we observe as a violent explosion when these two elements react.

Due to the large amounts of energy released during the reaction, the resulting H2O molecule now exists in a much lower energy state than its parent reactants. The molecule contains extremely strong O-H bonds that are not easily broken. Therefore, it is not possible (nor would it be energetically favorable) for water to react with oxygen again under normal conditions.

Hydrogen bonds is a somewhat unrelated matter, because it only has to do with interactions between other water molecules in solution. 


The oxygen atom, being extremely "hungry" for electrons, tends to pull them away from the hydrogen atoms in the molecule. This gives the hydrogens a partial positive charge and the oxygen a partial negative one. This lets another oxygen in a different molecule to form a weak attractive bond to the electron-deficient hydrogen. This phenomenon is known as hydrogen bonding, and this property gives water many unique properties that distinguishes it from other liquids. Because of the increased attraction between the water molecules in solution, it is more difficult to separate them individually - i.e. get the water to boil, turning the molecules into a gas. This is why water has a much higher boiling point (100 °C) than liquids which do not hydrogen bond, like carbon tetrachloride (76 °C).

Kaldeep: Thanks
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