CHAPTER 2

WATER, ACID AND BASE SYSTEM

Learning Outcome:
 Understand water and polarity
 Explain what is hydrogen bond
 Covalent and non-covalent bonds
 Understand what is acids and bases
 How to calculate pH
 Titration curves and buffer

Introduction

1. 71% of earth is covered by water ( 97.5% of it is salt water i.e. ocean, 2.5% fresh water: lakes,
rivers and ice, 1.8% of earth is covered by fresh water)
2. 60% of human body consist of water
3. Water is labeled as the matrix of life because it is the principle components in most cells and
plays a role as a solvent in most biochemical processes that is essential for living organism.
4. Water biological function as a solvent :
 Temperature regulation in organism
 Water is the reagent and product in photosynthesis and other cellular respiration
 Formation of peptide bonds in protein synthesis

Water Bent Shape and Polarity

1. Polar bond is a covalent bond between two atoms where the electrons forming the bond are
unequally distributed. This causes the molecule to have a dipole moment where one end is partial
positive and one end is partial negative
2. Electronegativity is the tendency of an atom to attract electrons to itself in a chemical bond to
become negative. Electrons are drawn closer to atom with higher electronegativity.
3. Non-Polar bonds is a non covalent bond that has sharing of electron is nearly equal and has no
positive or negative end, thus has zero electronegativity.
4. Elecronegativity of selected elements (High to low )

5. Water is a bent molecule due the uneven sharing of the electron in the two covalent bonds.
This is due to unequal distribution of charges where oxygen has a partial negative charge and
hydrogen a partial positive charge that results in net dipole and its bent shape.
 6. CO2 shared electrons evenly and cause it to form a linear shape that gave no net dipole, thus
become non polar. The geometry also contributes to determine the polarity

Hydrogen bonds in Water Molecules

1. Water molecules bind to one another by hydrogen bonds

2. The hydrogen is attached to an electronegative atom (oxygen) and an electronegative atom
(oxygen) of a different water molecule.
3. Usually the electronegative atom is oxygen, nitrogen, or fluorine, which has a partial negative
charge.
4. The hydrogen then has the partial positive charge.
5. Besides water, H-bond also function to stabilize other 3-dimensional structures such as DNA,
RNA and proteins
hydrogen hydrogen
bond donor bond acceptor
R
O H O Water and a
hydroxyl group
H H
Water and the carbonyl group
O H O C of an aldehyde, ketone, carboxylic
H acid, ester, or amide
R
An amino group and
N H O a hydroxyl group
H Important
An amino group and in
a carbonyl group proteins
N H O C and
nucleic
An amino group and acids
N H N another nitrogen-
containing group
 6. Why does water has such unique properties?
 It is unique because it can have high boiling point and melting point than other molecules
of its size due to the extensive H-bonding between water molecules.
 Each water molecules has 2 partial positive and 2 partial negative charges that allow
water to form bond in liquid form and an array in a solid form. This extensive bonding
would require large amount of energy to disrupt i.e higher temperature to melt and boils
the water molecules
7. Why does ice floats in water?
 In solid ice, water can form up to 4 H-bond , thus more spatial and less dense
 Whereas in liquid water it will form between 2-3 bond thus making it more dense

Water as a Universal Solvent

1. Water is labeled as universal solvent because water is capable of dissolving a variety of different
substances more than any other liquid
2. Water is polar, dissolves best with polar substances
3. Three types of molecules characteristics when mixed with water
 Hydrophilic – water loving
 Hydrophobic – fear of water
 Amphiphatic – part of the molecule is hydrophilic while another part is hydrophobic
4. Water with polar substances
 Water molecules have a polar arrangement of oxygen and hydrogen atoms.
 One side (hydrogen) has a positive electrical charge and the other side (oxygen) had a
negative charge.
 When a polar substance is put in water, the positive ends of its molecules are attracted to
the negative ends of the water molecules, and vice versa
 This allows the water molecule to become attracted to many other different types of
molecules.
 5. The non-polar compound cannot join the bonds of the water molecule because of it’s weak
attraction and the absence of dipoles.
 Non-polar substance does not have negative and positive ends.
 The waters attractive bonds with each other will push the non-polar compound away
and separate from them. The interaction of water and non polar compound are based in
Van der Waals force
 Therefore, a non-polar compound is insoluble in water.

Polar compound Non- Polar compound

Hydrophilicc Hydrophobic

Sugars, salts Most lipids such as fatty acids, cholesterol

Amino acids, phosphate esters, CO2, N2 , O2

6. Water with amphiphatic molecules
 Amphiphatic molecules refers to molecules that contain both polar and nonpolar groups
 Thus amphiphatic molecules are attracted to both polar and nonpolar environments
 Polar head of amphiphatic molecules comes in contact with water and non polar tail are
sequestered from water

Adhesion and Cohesion of Water

1. Cohesion: Water is attracted to water. Because of their polarity, water molecules are strongly
attracted to one another, which gives water a high surface tension.
2. Adhesion: Water is attracted to other substances, Water polarity allows them to bind to other
polar surfaces
3. Strength (low to high) : Van der Waals <H-bond < Covalent bond <Ionic Bond

Acid and Base

1. Acid is a molecule that acts as a proton donor (H+)

 Strong acid: an acid that is completely ionized in aqueous solution
 HCl, HBr, HI, HNO3, and H2SO4
2. Base is a molecule defined as a proton acceptor
 Strong base: a base that is completely ionized in aqueous solution
 LiOH, NaOH, KOH, Ca(OH)2, and Ba(OH)2
 conjugate acid-base pair
O O
+
CH 3 COH + H2 O CH 3 CO - + H3 O
Acid Base Conjugate base Conjugate acid
of acetic acid of water

conjugate acid-base pair

3. Acid Dissociation Constant measures the degree of dissociation of acids in water (to measure acid
strength.
 Complete dissociation – strong acid
 Incomplete to no dissociation – weak acid

4. Acid Dissociation Constant (Ka) formula:

5. Acid disassociation constant at logarithmic scale is called pKa

6. Note that the smaller the Ka, the larger the pKa. Thus, stronger acids are represented by larger Ka
values, but smaller pKa values.
 Strong acid, H3O⁺ → Ka > 1 and pKa < 0
 Strong base, OH⁺ → Ka < 1 and pKa > 0
7. Acidic solutions are those where the [H3O+] is greater than the [OH–], and basic solutions are
those where the [OH–] is greater than the [H3O+].
8. From the pKa, Henderson Hasselbach equation was derived to calculate pH
Henderson-Hasselbalch equation

9. From this equation, when the concentrations of weak acid and its conjugate base are equal, the pH
of the solution equals the pKa of the weak acid
 when pH < pKa, the weak acid predominates
 when pH > pKa, the conjugate base predominates
10. Water can function as both acid and base. Acid-base properties of water is important in biological
processes because water acts as solvent in most cases
11. One water molecule can act as a base (accept H ion) and one as an acid (donates H)
12. Water Ionic Constant, Kw
 However fast the hydroxonium and hydroxide ion is form, they will react to produce water
again
 2H20→H30 + OH
  Ionization of pure water
 H20 → H + OH
 Based on the equilibrium above :
 Kw = [H3O+] [OH-] OR Kw = [H+][OH-],
 Kw = 10-14 when pure water temperature is 23⁰C
13. pH can be defined as logarithmic measure of H ion concentration. pH = -log 10 [H+]

Titration Curves

1. Titration: an experiment in which measured amounts of acid (or base) are added to measured
amounts of base (or acid)
2. Equivalence point: the point in an acid-base titration at which enough acid has been added to
exactly neutralize the base (or vice versa)
 Equivalence point at pH7 is only for strong acid + strong base
3. Inflection point : A point on the titration curve when the pH equals to the pKa of an acid. Also
known as Half Equivalence point
4. A buffer: a solution whose pH resists change upon addition of either more acid or more base.
Consists of a weak acid and its conjugate base
5. Examples of acid-base buffers: are solutions containing
 CH3COOH and CH3COONa
 H2CO3 and NaHCO3
 NaH2PO4 and Na2HPO4
6. A buffer is effective in a range of about +/- 1 pH unit of the pKa of the weak acid – buffer range
7. How does human maintain a blood pH 7.4 inside the body
 When there is rapid metabolism, body produce excess CO2 and H+
 Carbon dioxide dissolved in the blood, which are later picked up by hemoglobin
 CO2 converted to carbonic acid H2CO3, by carbonic anhydrase.
 Carbonic acid then dissociates to bicarbonate and hydrogen ions.
 Lungs and kidney helps to removed CO2 , HCO3 and H+ from the blood

8. Types of buffer in human body

 H2PO4-/HPO4 is the principal buffer in cells
 H2CO3/HCO3- is an important buffer in blood