Re: composition of water

Actually, water is a rather complex organization of molecules. Water molecules like to form clusters. These clusters form from the dipole moment of the molecules, positive ends are attracted to negative ends. As the water is heated, the clusters break up into individual molecules.
Inside these clusters, a hydrogen ion and it's corresponding hydroxyl molecule can get surrounded by other molecules and separate them. Due to the attraction of the hydrogen ion to the hydroxyl molecule, there is a limited number of separated pairs. In fact the concentration of the hydrogen ion (in moles/litre) times the concentration of the hydroxyl molecule is equal to 0.00000000000001 (or 10e-14). Adding an acid or base to the water changes the concentration of the hydrogen ions and hydroxy molecules, but the product remains constant. A solution of 0.1 moles/litre of hydrochloric acid provides 0.1 moles/litre of hydrogen ions, which forces the concentration of hydroxyl molecules to be 10e-13 mole/litre. This concentration of acid has a pH of 1.

I think I provided a little more that you wanted.

Lance

--- In [email protected], "earthsaver1"  wrote:
>
> My understanding of water is that it is composed of H2O molecules, H+ and OH-.  Can someone explain to me how the water breaks apart to give the 2 ions and likewise reform to form water.  I understand there are bonds broken but is there a reason why?
> Sorry if this is naive but I am a Biology teacher trying to explain this question to a student.
> Thank you in advance
> 
> Dick
>



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