Non-covalent interactions
A hydrogen bond (H-bond), is a specific type of interaction that involves dipole-dipole attraction between a partially positive hydrogen atom and a highly electronegative, partially negative oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, or fluorine atom (not covalently bound to said hydrogen atom). It is not a covalent bond, but instead is classified as a strong non-covalent interaction. It is responsible for why water is a liquid at room temperature and not a gas (given water's low molecular weight). Most commonly, the strength of hydrogen bonds lies between 0 - 4 kcal/mol, but can sometimes be as strong as 40 kcal/mol In solvents such as chloroform or carbontetrachloride one observes e.g. for the interaction between amides additive values of about 5 kJ/mol. According to L. Pauling the strength of a hydrogen bond is essentially determined by the electrostatic charges. Measurements of thousands complexes in chloroform or carbontetrachloride have led to additive free energy increments for all kind of donor-acceptor combinations.
Chemical bonding of H2O
The Lewis structure of describes the bonds as two sigma bonds between the central oxygen atom and the two peripheral hydrogen atoms with oxygen having two lone pairs of electrons. Valence bond theory suggests that is sp3 hybridized in which the 2s atomic orbital and the three 2p orbitals of oxygen are hybridized to form four new hybridized orbitals which then participate in bonding by overlapping with the hydrogen 1s orbitals. As such, the predicted shape and bond angle of sp3 hybridization is tetrahedral and 109.5°. This is in open agreement with the true bond angle of 104.45°. The difference between the predicted bond angle and the measured bond angle is traditionally explained by the electron repulsion of the two lone pairs occupying two sp3 hybridized orbitals. While valence bond theory is suitable for predicting the geometry and bond angle of , its prediction of electronic states does not agree with the experimentally measured reality. In the valence bond model, the two sigma bonds are of identical energy and so are the two lone pairs since they both resides in the same bonding and nonbonding orbitals, thus corresponding to two energy levels in the photoelectronic spectrum. In other words, if water was formed from two identical O-H bonds and two identifcal sp3 lone pairs on the oxygen atom as predicted by valence bond theory, then its photoelectron spectrum (PES) would have two (degenerate) peaks and energy, one for the two O-H bonds and the other for the two sp lone pairs. However, the photoelectronic spectrum of reveals four different energy levels that correspond to the ionization energies of the two bonding and two nonbonding pairs of elections at 12.6eV, 14.7eV, 18.5eV, and 32.2eV. This suggest that neither the two O-H bonds nor the two sp3 lone pairs are degenerate in energy.