Why does the oxygen have more attraction for electrons than the hydrogen in water?
1 Answer
Oxygen has a higher electronegativity ( 3.5) than Hydrogen (2.2) so the electrons are drawn more to the Oxygen than Hydrogen.
Explanation:
Oxygen has a positive charge of +8 due to having 8 protons. The positive charge pulls the electrons closer to the nucleus. Since the electrons are in the second shell the electrons start out close to the nucleus. already.
Hydrogen has a positive charge of +1 due to having only one proton. The single electron of the Hydrogen is in the first shell and so in close to the nucleus.
The attraction of the Oxygen for an electron as measured by the electronegativity of Oxygen is 3.5 which is higher than the electronegativity of Hydrogen at 2.2. This means that the electron density will be drawn closer to the Oxygen than the Hydrogen.
