Tuesday 28 July 2009

H2O/HOH


The first decomposition of water into hydrogen and oxygen, by electrolysis, was done in 1800 by William Nicholson, an English chemist. In 1805, Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac andAlexander von Humboldt showed that water is composed of two parts hydrogen and one part oxygen (by volume).
Gilbert Newton Lewis isolated the first sample of pure heavy water in 1933.
The properties of water have historically been used to define various temperature scales. Notably, the Kelvin, Celsius and Fahrenheit scales were, or currently are, defined by the freezing and boiling points of water. The less common scales of Delisle, Newton, Réaumur and Rømer were defined similarly. The triple point of water is a more commonly used standard point today.

Water (H2O, HOH) is the most abundant molecule on Earth's surface, constituting about 75% of the Earth's surface. In nature it exists in liquid, solid, and gaseous states. It is in dynamic equilibrium between the liquid and gas states at standard temperature and pressure. At room temperature, it is a nearly colorless with a hint of blue, tasteless, and odorless liquid. Many substances dissolve in water and it is commonly referred to as the universal solvent. Because of this, water in nature and in use is rarely pure and some of its properties may vary slightly from those of the pure substance. However, there are many compounds that are essentially, if not completely, insoluble in water. Water is the only common substance found naturally in all three common states of matter—for other substances, see Chemical properties. Water is essential for life on Earth. Water usually makes up 55% to 78% of the human body.
Surface Tension
Water has a high surface tension of 72.8 mN/m, caused by the strong cohesion between water molecules, the highest of the non-metallic liquids. This can be seen when small quantities of water are placed onto a sorption-free (non-adsorbent and non-absorbent) surface, such as polythene orTeflon, and the water stays together as drops. Just as significantly, air trapped in surface disturbances forms bubbles, which sometimes last long enough to transfer gas molecules to the water.
Another surface tension effect is capillary waves, which are the surface ripples that form around the impacts of drops on water surfaces, and sometimes occur with strong subsurface currents flowing to the water surface. The apparent elasticity caused by surface tension drives the waves.
Capillary Action
Due to an interplay of the forces of adhesion and surface tension, water exhibits capillary action whereby water rises into a narrow tube against the force of gravity. Water adheres to the inside wall of the tube and surface tension tends to straighten the surface causing a surface rise and more water is pulled up through cohesion. The process continues as the water flows up the tube until there is enough water such that gravity balances the adhesive force.
Surface tension and capillary action are important in biology. For example, when water is carried through xylem up stems in plants, the strong intermolecular attractions (cohesion) hold the water column together and adhesive properties maintain the water attachment to the xylem and prevent tension rupture caused by transpiration pull.
Heavy water and isotopologues
There are several isotopes of both hydrogen and oxygen, so several isotopologues of water are known. Hydrogen has three naturally occurring isotopes. The most common, making up more than 99.98% of the hydrogen in water, has 1 proton and 0 neutrons. A second isotope, deuterium (short form "D"), has 1 proton and 1 neutron. Deuterium oxide, D2O, is also known as heavy water and is used in nuclear reactors as a neutron moderator. The third isotope, tritium, has 1 proton and 2 neutrons, and is radioactive, with a half-life of 4500 days.T2O exists in nature only in tiny quantities, being produced primarily via cosmic ray-driven nuclear reactions in the atmosphere. D2O is stable, but differs from H2O in that it is denser - hence, "heavy water" - and in that several other physical properties are slightly different from those of common, Hydrogen-1 containing "light water". Water with one deuterium atomHDO occurs naturally in ordinary water in very low concentrations (~0.03%) and D2O in far lower amounts (0.000003%). Consumption of pure isolated D2O may affect biochemical processes - ingestion of large amounts impairs kidney and central nervous system function. However, very large amounts of heavy water must be consumed for any toxicity to be apparent, and smaller quantities can be consumed with no ill effects at all.
Oxygen also has three stable isotopes, with 16O present in 99.76 %, 17O in 0.04% and 18O in 0.2% of water molecules.
(Wonky) Photograph details: Nikon D40. Focal Length 55mm. exp: 1/60 F-stop f/5.6


If you liked this post, or have done something similar, why not spend a minute and let me know in the comments at the bottom of the page


Or if you like this blog and would like to receive emails when it's updater why not subscribe. You will only get an email if there is a post on this blog, and your details will not be shared. Plus its free!
Simply enter your email address in the box below:



Email subscriptions are delivered by FeedBurner

As ever, thanks for reading

2 comments:

  1. So how did you take this picture? Did your girlfriend drop something in the water while you took the picture? Looks great however you did it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. yeah - strawberries :o) I set up a tripod and the remote control and she dropped them in. The tripod is about 40 years old (it used to belong to my dad) and keeps slipping, hence the slightly wonky wall tile lines not being straight.

    ReplyDelete

Amazon Adverts

Amazon Adverts

Subscribe via email

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner