Hydrogen Bonding

You probably know that a sample of water vapour contains a small proportion of water dimers, (H2O)2.

(H2O)2 is called a hydrogen-bonded complex.

The bonds are described as weak because their energies are small compared with a covalent bond. The hydrogen bond energy in (H2O)2 is only about 20 kJ mol-1, compared with the O-H bond energy of 460 kJ mol-1.

Hydrogen bonds are a key feature in the assembly of some molecules into large units, like the double helix of DNA.



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