

In each of these cases, you have hydrogen bonded to a much more electronegative atom.

To do with hydrogen bonds? And the simple answer is, Of molecules interesting? And what does that have Probably very familiar with, in fact, you're made up Has one nitrogen bonded to three hydrogens. Depicted here, I have threeĭifferent types of molecules. If we quantify strength as the amount of energy required to pull molecules apart, then hydrogen bonding ranges from 4-50 kJ/mol while dipole-dipole only ranges from 2-8 kJ/mol.Ībout hydrogen bonds. There is a range of strengths for dipole-dipole and hydrogen bonding depending on the chemical environment and the types of molecules involved, but generally hydrogen bonding is stronger than dipole-dipole. In that sense we can think of hydrogen bonding as a stronger case of dipole-dipole. This small size of both atoms means molecules with these N-H, O-H, and F-H groups can approach each other quite close which results in an even stronger attraction than simply dipole-dipole. The key is that we have hydrogen, a very small atom, bonded to other small atoms. So the reason for hydrogen bonding is not solely due to a large electronegativity difference since there are other polar molecules with dipole-dipole, but not hydrogen bonding. Since all three are polar bonds they all make molecules with the correct geometry polar and therefore experience dipole-dipole attraction. The electronegativity differences are therefore: N-H = 0.84, O-H = 1.24, F-H = 1.78, which would place them all within the polar covalent range. Using Pauling electronegativity values, hydrogen has an electronegativity of 2.20, nitrogen is 3.04, oxygen is 3.44, and fluorine is 3.98. Hydrogen bonding is most common with electronegative small atom in the second period, namely nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine. At 0.4 and below is considered nonpolar covalent, while greater than 2.0 is considered ionic. There isn’t a single agreed range of what constitutes a polar covalent bond, but approximately an electronegativity difference between 0.4 – 2.0 is considered polar covalent. The strengths of these hydrogen bonds just vary widely.Ī polar covalent bond arises when there is a large electronegativity difference between two bonding atoms. And this is due to the nontraditional atoms either being not as electronegative (in the case of carbon), or not as small (in the case of chlorine and sulfur) compared to the traditional atoms.īut nowadays it is recognized more elements than just fluorine, oxygen, and nitrogen engage in hydrogen bonding (would would include hydrochloric acid). Part of the reason why these other atoms aren't commonly recognized as engaging hydrogen bonding is that compared to the traditional atoms, their hydrogen bonding is quite weak. Usually this means atoms like fluorine, oxygen, and nitrogen, but this can also include atoms like carbon, chlorine, and sulfur. You also want these electronegative atoms to be small the that donor and acceptor can approach each other more closely adding to the strength of the hydrogen bond.

Well for hydrogen bonding to occur you want the hydrogen atom bonded to an electronegative atom (acting as the hydrogen bond donor) interacting with another electronegative atom (acting as the hydrogen bond acceptor). So fundamentally it's the same interaction which occurs in dipole-dipole, but because of the atom's sizes this attraction is enhanced and is stronger than other conventional dipole-dipole interactions. Third, since these atoms all quite small, the hydrogen atom on one molecule can approach the small electronegative atom (again N, O, and F) on another molecule very closely. Second the electronegativity difference between hydrogen and small electronegative atoms is large enough to be considered polar covalent, but not so much that it becomes ionic.

First, it's simply a commonplace element in many crucial molecules like water. The reason we focus on hydrogen specifically is a result of several reasons. So we'll start having ionic interactions instead of dipole-dipole interactions which includes hydrogen bonding. And so pairing them with the electronegative atoms commonly associated with hydrogen bonding (nitrogen, oxygen, and fluorine) will have a large enough electronegativity difference that their bonding is no longer considered polar covalent, but rather ionic. Well atoms like cesium or francium have very small electronegativity values.
