Biological Importance Of Water
The Biological Importance of Water.
Water is a material that is essential for all life on earth. The fact that water makes up between 60 and 95 percent of all living organisms clearly shows the biological importance of this compound. The way that water is structured and its properties lead to it being one of the most individual and vital compounds on earth.
Water molecules are dipolar, meaning they have a positively charged and a negatively charged region. A water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom, the oxygen atom has a partial negative charge, whereas the two hydrogen atoms have a slight positive charge. So, when water molecules are close together, their positive and negative regions are attracted to the oppositely-charged regions of nearby molecules, the attraction is called a hydrogen bond. Each water molecule can be hydrogen bonded to four others, because it can accept two and donate two hydrogen atoms.
The fact that water is dipolar, leads to it often being called a universal solvent. The hydrogen side of water having a slight positive charge and the oxygen side having a slight negative charge mean that, when an ionic or polar compound enters water and it is surrounded by water molecules, the relatively small size of water molecules allows many water molecules to surround one molecule of solute. The partially negative dipole ends of the water are attracted to positively charged areas of the solute, and vice versa for the positive polar ends. So when a solvent is added to water, for example Sodium Chloride, the sodium which is positively charged will be attracted to oxygen, and the chloride will be attracted to hydrogen, therefore the NaCl will dissolve into the water.
The fact that water is a good solvent for ionic compounds is of biological importance because there are many essential elements that are required by organisms in their ionic form, for example, plants need to absorb nitrate ions in solution. The nitrogen cycle is
Water is a material that is essential for all life on earth. The fact that water makes up between 60 and 95 percent of all living organisms clearly shows the biological importance of this compound. The way that water is structured and its properties lead to it being one of the most individual and vital compounds on earth.
Water molecules are dipolar, meaning they have a positively charged and a negatively charged region. A water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom, the oxygen atom has a partial negative charge, whereas the two hydrogen atoms have a slight positive charge. So, when water molecules are close together, their positive and negative regions are attracted to the oppositely-charged regions of nearby molecules, the attraction is called a hydrogen bond. Each water molecule can be hydrogen bonded to four others, because it can accept two and donate two hydrogen atoms.
The fact that water is dipolar, leads to it often being called a universal solvent. The hydrogen side of water having a slight positive charge and the oxygen side having a slight negative charge mean that, when an ionic or polar compound enters water and it is surrounded by water molecules, the relatively small size of water molecules allows many water molecules to surround one molecule of solute. The partially negative dipole ends of the water are attracted to positively charged areas of the solute, and vice versa for the positive polar ends. So when a solvent is added to water, for example Sodium Chloride, the sodium which is positively charged will be attracted to oxygen, and the chloride will be attracted to hydrogen, therefore the NaCl will dissolve into the water.
The fact that water is a good solvent for ionic compounds is of biological importance because there are many essential elements that are required by organisms in their ionic form, for example, plants need to absorb nitrate ions in solution. The nitrogen cycle is