CHEM4TECH REVIEWER

Properties and Kinds of Water

 Humans live on a planet that is dominated by water
 70 % of the Earth's surface is covered with it
 Hence, water is everywhere, from huge oceans to invisible water
molecules making up water vapor in the air
 Freshwater is a primary resource for all terrestrial life on this planet
 Humans live on a planet that is dominated by water
 Important for the facilitation of most biotic and abiotic environmental
processes
 Humans use water for basic survival and require water for use in
industry, agriculture, transportation, and electrical power generation
 We can see and feel the physical properties of water, but there are
also many chemical, electrical, and atomic-scale properties of water
that affect all life and substances on Earth.

 Water is unique in that it is the only natural substance that is found in

all three physical states - liquid, solid, and gas - at the temperatures
normally found on Earth
 Water freezes at 32° Fahrenheit (F) and boils at 212°F (at sea level,
but 186.4° at 14,000 feet)
 Water is unusual in that the solid form, ice, is less dense than the liquid
form, which is why ice floats
 Water is called the "universal solvent" because it dissolves more
substances than any other liquid. This means that wherever water
goes, either through the ground or through our bodies, it takes along
valuable chemicals, minerals, and nutrients
 Pure water has a neutral pH of 7, which is neither acidic (less than 7)
nor basic (greater than 7).
 The water molecule is highly cohesive — it is very sticky, meaning
water molecules stick to each other. Water is the most cohesive among
the non-metallic liquids
 The water molecule is highly adhesive — it is very sticky, meaning
water molecules tend to stick to molecules of other substances
 Pure water, which you won't ever find in the natural environment, does
not conduct electricity. Water becomes a conductor once it starts
dissolving substances around it
 Water has a high heat index—it absorbs a lot of heat before it begins
to get hot. This is why water is valuable to industries and in your car's
radiator as a coolant
 The high heat index of water also helps regulate the rate at which air
changes temperature, which is why the temperature change between
seasons is gradual rather than sudden, especially near the oceans
 The density of water means that sound moves through it long
distances (ask a whale!). In sea water at 30°C, sound has a velocity of
1,545 meters per second (about 3,500 miles per hour)
 Water has a very high surface tension. In other words, water is sticky
and elastic, and tends to clump together in drops rather than spread
out in a thin film, like rubbing alcohol
 Surface tension is responsible for capillary action, which allows water
(and its dissolved substances) to move through the roots of plants and
through the tiny blood vessels in our bodies.

 Air pressure affects the boiling point of water, which is why it takes
longer to boil an egg at high altitude than at the beach. The higher the
altitude, the lower the air pressure, the lower the boiling point of
water, and thus, the longer time to hard-boil an egg. At sea level water
boils at 212°F (100°C), while at 5,000 feet, water boils at 202.9°F (94.9
°C).
 1. ADHESION AND COHESION
Adhesion: Water is attracted to other substances
Cohesion: Water is attracted to water
 Water properties that affect every water molecule on Earth and also
the interaction of water molecules with molecules of other substances
 Cohesion and adhesion are the "stickiness" that water molecules have
for each other and for other substances

 A water drop is composed of water

molecules that like to stick
together-an example of the
property of cohesion
 In the picture of pine needles, the
water droplets are stuck to the end
of the pine needles-an example of
the property of adhesion
 Also noticeable in this picture is the
effect that gravity has on the water drops
 Gravity is working against both adhesion and cohesion, trying to pull
the water drop downward
 COHESION
If you just look at the picture of the water drop sitting of the leaf, you
might think the water drop has a "skin" holding it into a sort of
flattened sphere
 It turns out that this surface tension is the result of the tendency of
water molecules to attract one another
 The natural form of a water drop occurs during the "lowest energy
state", the state where the atoms in the molecule are using the least
amount of energy

 For water, this state happens when a water molecule is surrounded on

all sides by other water molecules, which creates a sphere or ball
(perfectly round if it was in outer space)
 On Earth, the effect of gravity flattens this ideal sphere into the drop
shape we see
 Although you may have heard of a "skin" where water meets the air,
this is not really an accurate description, as there is nothing other than
water in the drop
 The cohesive property of water creates attraction between particles of
the same substance (why water is attracted to itself)
 The resulting effect of this attraction is surface tension (a measure of
the strength of water’s surface)
 This is a result of the tendency of water molecules to attract to one
another, or cohere, at the surface of any accumulation of water
 It produces a surface film on water that allows insects to walk on the
surface of water
 ADHESION
 Adhesion is the attraction of water molecules to another substance
 Water is highly cohesive—it is the highest of the non-metallic liquids.
 Water is sticky and clumps together into drops because of its cohesive
properties, but chemistry and electricity are involved at a more
detailed level to make this possible
 More precisely, the positive and negative charges of the hydrogen and
oxygen atoms that make up water molecules makes them attracted to
each other
 If you've played with bar magnets you will know that the north pole of
one magnet will repel the north pole of another magnet, but it will
attract the south pole of another magnet
 Opposite magnetic poles attract one another much like positively
charged atoms attract negatively charged atoms in water molecules.
 In other words, adhesion property of water allows it to make hydrogen
bonds with other surfaces such as glass, soil, plant tissues, and cotton
 Example of this is the capillary action of water molecules that “tow”
each other along when in a thin glass tube
 The transpiration process which plants and trees remove water from
the soil, and paper towels soak up water.

CAPILLARY ACTION
 Even if you've never heard of capillary action, it is still important in
your life
 Capillary action is important for moving water (and all of the things
that are dissolved in it) around
 It is defined as the movement of water within the spaces of a porous
material due to the forces of adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension
 Even if you've never heard of capillary action, it is still important in
your life
 Capillary action is important for moving water (and all of the things
that are dissolved in it) around
 It is defined as the movement of water within the spaces of a porous
material due to the forces of adhesion, cohesion, and surface tension
 Capillary action occurs when the adhesion to the walls is stronger than
the cohesive forces between the liquid molecules
 The height to which capillary action will take water in a uniform circular
tube is limited by surface tension and, of course, gravity
 Not only does water tend to stick together in a drop, it sticks to glass,
cloth, organic tissues, soil, and, luckily, to the fibers in a paper towel
 Dip a paper towel into a glass of water and the water will "climb" onto
the paper towel
 In fact, it will keep going up the towel until the pull of gravity is too
much for it to overcome
 It "magically" climb up the towel, appearing to ignore gravity. You are
seeing capillary action in action, and "climbing up" is about right - the
water molecules climb up the towel and drag other water molecules
along.
 Plants and trees couldn't thrive without capillary action
 Plants put down roots into the soil which are capable of carrying water
from the soil up into the plant
 Water, which contains dissolved nutrients, gets inside the roots and
starts climbing up the plant tissue
 Capillary action helps bring water up into the roots. But capillary action
can only "pull" water up a small distance, after which it cannot
overcome gravity.
 To get to pull water up to all the branches and leaves, the forces of
adhesion and cohesion go to work in the plant's xylem to move water
to the furthest leaf
 Capillary action is also essential for the drainage of constantly
produced tear fluid from the eye
 Two tiny-diameter tubes, the lacrimal ducts, are present in the inner
corner of the eyelid; these ducts secrete tears into the eye
 Maybe you've used a fountain pen .... or maybe your parents or
grandparents did. The ink moves from a reservoir in the body of the
pen down to the tip and into the paper (which is composed of tiny
paper fibers and air spaces between them), and not just turning into a
blob
 Of course, gravity is responsible for the ink moving "downhill" to the
pen tip, but capillary action is needed to keep the ink flowing onto the
paper

WATER MENISCUS
 A meniscus is a curve in the surface of a molecular substance (water,
of course) when it touches another material
 With water, you can think of it as when water sticks to the inside of a
glass
 WHY MENISCUS OCCURS
 Adhesion is responsible for a meniscus and this has to do in part with
water's fairly high surface tension. Water molecules are attracted to
the molecules in the wall of the glass beaker
 And since water molecules like to stick together, when the molecules
touching the glass cling to it, other water molecules cling to the
molecules touching the glass, forming the meniscus
 . They'll travel up the glass as far as water's cohesive forces will allow
them, until gravity prevents them from going further
 Cohesion is an intermolecular attraction between like molecules (other
water molecules in this case).

Properties and Kinds of Water (2)

WATER COLOR
 Is pure water really clear? slight blue tint
 In the natural world…definitely not clear due to sediment and organics
color natural water shades of brown or green.
 too much iron….. brown hue
 may be true that a bit of color in water may not make it harmful to
drink ... but it certainly makes it unappealing to drink
 color in our water does matter when it comes to drinking it, as well as
in water for other home uses, industrial uses, and in some aquatic
environments.
 drunk water containing a bit of iron in it, you would know from the
metallic taste left in your mouth
 dissolved chemicals in drinking water can be less than desirable
 color in drinking water can be caused by dissolved and suspended
materials, and a brown shade in water often comes from rust in the
water pipes
 water can contain contaminants, which are usually removed by water-
supply systems
 the plus side is it contains a number of dissolved minerals that are
beneficial for human health
 if you have ever drunk "pure" water, such as distilled or deionized
water, you would have noticed that it tasted "flat“
 most people prefer water with dissolved minerals, although they still
want it to be clear.
 Have you ever gotten a glass of water from your faucet and the water
is milky white water or hazy? This is almost always caused by air in the
water.
 Air bubbles and pressure in water lines can make your drinking water
look cloudy.... for a few seconds
 this is a natural phenomenon and is caused by dissolved air in the
water that is released when the faucet is opened

Pure Water and Color

 is pure water really clear?
 first, you won't find truly pure water in a natural setting
 it contains dissolved minerals and often suspended materials
 water is in fact not colorless; even pure water is not colorless, but has
a slight blue tint to it
 best seen when looking through a long column of water.
 the blueness in water is not caused by the scattering of light, which is
responsible for the sky being blue
 water blueness comes from the water molecules absorbing the red end
of the spectrum of visible light
 to be even more detailed, the absorption of light in water is due to the
way the atoms vibrate and absorb different wavelengths of light

Color and Water in the Environment

 color in water you see around you can be imparted in two ways:
dissolved and suspended components

 an example of dissolved substances is tannin, which is caused by

organic matter coming from leaves, roots, and plant remains
 another example would be the cup of hot tea your grandmother has in
the afternoon
 the color is probably attributable to naturally dissolved organic acids
formed when plant material is slowly broken down by into tiny particles
that are essentially dissolved in the water
 if you filtered that tannin-water in the picture the color would probably
remain
 most of the color in water you see around you comes from suspended
material

 highly-turbid water contains suspended sediment (fine particles of

clay) to clearer, but still colored, water in the main stem of the river
 algae and suspended sediment particles are very common particulate
matter that cause natural waters to become colored
 even though the muddy water would not be appealing to swim in, that
water has less color than the water containing dissolved tannins
 highly-turbid water contains suspended sediment (fine particles of
clay) to clearer, but still colored, water in the main stem of the river
 algae and suspended sediment particles are very common particulate
matter that cause natural waters to become colored
 even though the muddy water would not be appealing to swim in, that
water has less color than the water containing dissolved tannins
 suspended material in water bodies may be a result of natural causes
and/or human activity
 transparent water with a low accumulation of dissolved materials
appears blue
 dissolved organic matter, such as humus, peat or decaying plant
matter, can produce a yellow or brown color
 some algae or dinoflagellates produce reddish or deep yellow waters
 water rich in phytoplankton and other algae usually appears green
 soil runoff produces a variety of yellow, red, brown and gray colors
 water is nature is never really totally clear, especially in surface water,
such as rivers and lakes
 water has color and some extent of dissolved and suspended material,
usually dirt particles (suspended sediment)
 suspended sediment is an important factor in determining the quality
of water
 storms, of course, deliver large amounts of water to a river, but did you
know they also bring along lots of eroded soil and debris from the
surrounding landscape
 rocks as small as tiny clay particles and larger that are moved by the
water are called sediment
 fast-moving water can pick up, suspend, and move larger particles
more easily than slow-moving waters.
 this is why rivers are more muddy-looking during storms—they are
carrying a lot more sediment than they carry during a low-flow period
 in fact, so much sediment is carried during storms that over one-half of
all the sediment moved during a year might be transported during a
single storm period
 if you scoop up some muddy river water in a glass you are viewing the
suspended sediment in the water
 if you leave your glass in a quiet spot for a while the sediment will start
to settle to the bottom of the glass
 the same thing happens in rivers in spots where the water is not
moving so quickly—much of the suspended sediment falls to the
stream bed to become bottom sediment (yes, mud
 ). The sediment may build up on the bottom or it may get picked up
and suspended again by swift-moving water to move further
downstream
 so, what does this have to do with people? On the positive side,
sediment deposited on the banks and flood plains of a river is often
mineral-rich and makes excellent farmland
 on the negative side, when rivers flood, they leave behind many tons
of wet, sticky, heavy, and smelly mud—not something you would want
in your basement
 sediment in rivers can also shorten the lifespan of dams and reservoirs
 when a river is dammed and a reservoir is created, the sediments that
used to flow along with the relatively fastmoving river water are,
instead, deposited in the reservoir
 this happens because the river water flowing through the reservoir
moves too slowly to keep sediment suspended -- the sediment settles
to the bottom of the reservoir
 reservoirs slowly fill up with sediment and mud, eventually making
them unusable for their intended purposes

TURBIDITY AND WATER

 our drinking water is almost always clear (very low turbidity)
 other water, such as the creek behind your house after a rainstorm, is
likely to be highly turbid—brown with floating sediment
 turbidity is the clarity of water and it is an important factor in water
quality
 turbidity is the measure of relative clarity of a liquid. It is an optical
characteristic of water and is a measurement of the amount of light
that is scattered by material in the water when a light is shined
through the water sample
 the higher the intensity of scattered light, the higher the turbidity
 material that causes water to be turbid include clay, silt, very tiny
inorganic and organic matter, algae, dissolved colored organic
compounds, and plankton and other microscopic organisms
 turbidity makes water cloudy or opaque
 during periods of low flow (base flow), many rivers are a clear green
color, and turbidities are low, usually less than 10NTU
 during a rainstorm, particles from the surrounding land are washed
into the river making the water a muddy brown color, indicating water
that has higher turbidity values.
 during high flows, water velocities are faster and water volumes are
higher, which can more easily stir up and suspend material from the
stream bed, causing higher turbidities
Turbidity and Water Quality
 high concentrations of particulate matter affect light penetration and
ecological productivity, recreational values, and habitat quality, and
cause lakes to fill in faster
 in streams, increased sedimentation and siltation can occur, which can
result in harm to habitat areas for fish and other aquatic life
 particles also provide attachment places for other pollutants, notably
metals and bacteria
 for this reason, turbidity readings can be used as an indicator of
potential pollution in a water body
Turbidity and Human Health
 excessive turbidity, or cloudiness, in drinking water is aesthetically
unappealing, and may also represent a health concern
 turbidity can provide food and shelter for pathogens
 if not removed, the causes of high turbidity can promote regrowth of
pathogens in the water, leading to waterborne disease outbreaks,
which have caused significant cases of intestinal sickness
 although turbidity is not a direct indicator of health risk, numerous
studies show a strong relationship between removal of turbidity and
removal of protozoa
 the particles of turbidity provide "shelter" for microbes by reducing
their exposure to attack by disinfectants
 microbial attachment to particulate material has been considered to
aid in microbe survival
 fortunately, traditional water treatment processes have the ability to
effectively remove turbidity when operated properly
Effects of Water Color on Ecosystems
 Highly colored water has significant effects on aquatic plants and algal
growth
 light is very critical for the growth of aquatic plants and colored water
can limit the penetration of light
 thus, a highly colored body of water could not sustain aquatic life
which could lead to the long-term impairment of the ecosystem

WATER COMPRESSIBILITY
 water is essentially incompressible, especially under normal conditions
 in industrial applications water can be tremendously compressed and
used to do things like cut through metal
 water is essentially incompressible, especially under normal conditions
 if you fill a sandwich bag with water and put a straw into it, when you
squeeze the baggie the water won't compress, but rather will shoot out
the straw. If the water compressed, it wouldn't "push back" out of the
straw
 incompressibility is a common property of liquids, but water is
especially incompressible
 water's lack of compressibility helps to push water out of water hoses
(handy for putting out fires), water guns and in artistic water fountains
 pressure is applied to a container full of water and rather than
compress, it comes shooting out of an opening, such as the end of the
hose or the end of a small pipe, as in this fountain
 if water was highly compressible, it would be harder to create enough
pressure for water to shoot out of the nearest opening
 kids make good use of water's uncompressibility when they play a
game of water-balloon tossing
 when you squeeze the balloon too much, the balloon's skin will fail
before the water inside compresses—it will burst in your face long
before the water will compress even an infinitesimal amount
Pressure and Temperature can Affect
 Compressibility But, squeeze hard enough and water will compress—
shrink in size and become more dense but not by very much
 envision the water a mile deep in the ocean. At that depth, the weight
of the water above, pushing downwards, is about 150 times normal
atmospheric pressure
 in industrial applications water can be tremendously compressed and
used to do things like cut through metal (especially if an abrasive
material is added to the water and the water is hot)
 water being pushed out at tremendous speed through a tiny hole is
used in industry to cut through everything from metal to ceramics to
plastics and even foods
 it is the preferred method when the materials being cut are sensitive to
the high temperatures generated by other methods
 it has found applications in a diverse number of industries from mining
to aerospace where it is used for operations such as cutting, shaping,
carving, and reaming
 to cut through stone a stream of water must be moving very fast and
producing a tremendous amount of pressure
 a pump is used to pressurize water in a container at pressure values up
to 90,000 pounds/square inch (psi) and then shoot it out of the nozzle
at speeds up to 600 mph