Question

Are water's polarity and ability to form hydrogen bonds the same thing? Or are they only connected? Please explain in detail, thank you in advance!

Answer 1

They are only connected, given that there exist polar molecules that DO NOT exhibit hydrogen-bonding....

Explanation:

Hydrogen-bonding is a potent force of `"intermolecular interaction"` that occurs when hydrogen is bound to a STRONGLY electronegative atom, such as nitrogen of oxygen or fluorine. The various hydrides, water, ammonia, and hydrogen fluoride ALL have anomalously high boiling points given the strength of the interaction...

For `H-F` we could write the dipole as....`stackrel(+delta)H-stackrel(delta-)F`...the fluorine atom polarizes electron density towards itself, hence the dipole, the charge separation...

And in the bulk phase, the individual dipoles can interact...

`stackrel(+delta)H-stackrel(delta-)Fcdots` `stackrel(+delta)H-stackrel(delta-)Fcdots` `stackrel(+delta)H-stackrel(delta-)F`

And such intermolecular interaction ELEVATES the boiling point, and we compare this to the hydrides of the lower elements in each Group.

Given that we are chemists, physical scientists, we should interrogate some data...

Are these data consistent with what we have argued? Why or why not?