WATER

DR. MED. GEORGESCU REMUS UMF VICTOR BABES TIMISOARA BIOPHYSICS DEPARTMENT

WATER

Water is the most abundant liquid on Earth. It covers 75% of the surface of our planet. None of the important processes from living systems is taking place in the absence of water. It is a well established fact that the first forms of life appeared in aqueous media.

WATER

The fact that life has evolved on our planet, which contains plenty of water in all its aggregation states, shows that the apparently simple chemical formula of water confers unique properties to this substance, which make it indispensable for life.

WATER

Besides these quantitative arguments, the importance of water is clearly shown by its strong influence on the structure of proteins. Solvent properties are crucial in protein folding and this process leads to the functional configuration of the macromolecules. Thus, water has direct influence on the organization and metabolic activity of biosystems. The Nobel prize winner biochemist, Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, called water the "matrix of life"

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

The water molecule consists of an oxygen and two hydrogen atoms. The length of each O - H bond is of 0.99 Angstroms and the angle between them is 104,5. In water, each hydrogen nucleus is bound to the central oxygen atom by a pair of electrons that are shared between them; chemists call this shared electron pair a covalent chemical bond (see first lecture)

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

In nature are existing three isotopes of hydrogen and the same number of oxygen isotopes, in principle there could exist 18 species of water, while in nature only two of these are found in significant quantities: the most widespread version (written as H2O) contains H 1 1 and O 18 16, whereas the so-called heavy water (denoted as D20) is made of H 1 2 and oxigen. About 1 molecule out of 6000 is of the second type.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

An oxygen atom is about 16 times heavier than a hydrogen atom. So a water molecule is about 16+1+1=18 times heavier than a hydrogen atom, and a heavy water molecule is 16+2+2=20 times heavier than a hydrogen atom. In other words, heavy water is 20/18=1.11 times heavier than ordinary water.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Relatively pure heavy water was produced in 1933, soon after the discovery of deuterium, the stable heavy isotope of hydrogen. With the discovery of nuclear fission in late 1938 and the need for a neutron moderator which captured few neutrons, heavy water soon achieved importance in relation to early nuclear programs during World War II.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Heavy water itself is not radioactive, and has physical properties similar to water save for being about 11% more dense. When the water in eukaryotic organisms is replaced by more than about 25 to 50% heavy water, they experience toxicity due to interference by the deuterium with the mitotic apparatus of these cells. Higher organisms, including mammals, if given only heavy water, soon become ill and die at the point that about half their body water has been replaced. Bacteria, however, are able to grow slowly in pure heavy water.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Small concentrations of heavy water are nontoxic. The adult human body naturally contains deuterium equivalent to the amount in about 5 grams of heavy water, and comparable doses of heavy water are still used as safe nonradioactive tracers for metabolic experiments in humans and other animals.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

The 10 electrons from the componence of a water molecule are distributed as follows: the electrons coming from the two H atoms participate at the covalent bonds and are attracted by the more electronegative atom, so the probability of localization near the O atom is high for these electrons; the atomic orbitals of the last electron layer of the oxygen atom 2s,2P;P, 2py and 2pz undergo an sp3 hybridization, yielding four hybrid orbitals in a tetrahedric arrangement; two of these are occupied by electron pairs which do not participate at covalent bonds; each of the remaining two orbitals contains a single electron and is implied in a bond formed with a hydrogen atom, which supplies the second electron for the molecular orbital that results from the combination of the hybrid orbital of O and the 1s orbital of H.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

The result is a tetrahedric spatial structure, with the oxygen atom in the center

Figure 2.1: Spatial orientations of the molecular orbitals in a water molecule.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

As mentioned above, due to the pronounced electronegativity of oxygen, also the electrons involved in the covalent bonds are displaced towards this atom giving rise to an asymmetric charge-distribution, with the center of mass of negative charges in the vicinity of 0. As a result, water molecules posess a permanent electric dipole moment of 1.84 Debye, oriented along the symmetry axis of the molecule. This is a reason of the strong interactions between water molecules as well as between water and polar groups of other molecules.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

The H2O molecule is electrically neutral, but the positive and negative charges are not distributed uniformly. This is illustrated by the gradation in color in the schematic diagram here. The electronic (negative) charge is concentrated at the oxygen end of the molecule, owing partly to the nonbonding electrons (solid blue circles), and to oxygen's high nuclear charge which exerts stronger attractions on the electrons. This charge displacement constitutes an electric dipole, represented by the arrow at the bottom; you can think of this dipole as the electrical "image" of a water molecule.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

So the partially-positive hydrogen atom on one water molecule is electrostatically attracted to the partially-negative oxygen on a neighboring molecule. This process is called (somewhat misleadingly) hydrogen bonding. Notice that the hydrogen bond (shown by the dashed green line) is somewhat longer than the covalent OH bond. This means that it is considerably weaker; it is so weak, in fact,that a given hydrogen bond cannot survive for more than a tiny fraction of a second.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

In this way, each molecule is able to form 4 hydrogen bonds with 4 adjacent molecules

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

The distance measured along a hydrogen bond between an oxygen atom and the hydrogen atom belonging to the other molecule is 1.77 Angstroms. Thus, the 00 distance is 2.76 Angstroms. In liquid water, hydrogen bonds have an average lifetime of s, and they have a cooperative dynamics in the sense that the binding of two molecules is favourable for the formation of other hydrogen bridges, and vice versa, if a bridge is broken, it will determine also the neighbouring bonds to do so.

Recent work from Richard SayKally's laboratory shows that the hydrogen bonds in liquid water break and re-form so rapidly (often in distorted configurations) that the liquid can be regarded as a continuous network of hydrogen-bonded molecules

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

This c t r-g r t sc l vi f li i t r is fr the l f ene t nley f B st n University . The xygen t s re red, the hydr gen t s hite

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

Depending on the conditions (pressure and temperature) under which water freezes, different crystal structures may arise. Ice formed in normal conditions has a hexagonal lattice in which each water molecule is bound coordinatively to 4 neighbours (Fig.). Hydrogen bonds are responsible for the supramolecular structures that are formed in water or ice, and also offer qualitative explanations regarding the anomalous physical properties of water.

Figure 2.3: Crystal structure of ice formed at normal pressure.

WATER - STRUCTURE AND PHYSICAL PROPERTIES

New researches are explaining the properties of water with a new theory the cluster theory The present thinking, influenced greatly by molecular modeling simulations beginning in the 1980s, is that on a very short time scale (less than a picosecond), water is more like a "gel" consisting of a single, huge hydrogen-bonded cluster. On a 10-1210-9 sec time scale, rotations and other thermal motions cause individual hydrogen bonds to break and re-form in new configurations, inducing ever-changing local discontinuities whose extent and influence depends on the temperature and pressure.

MATERIALS RESEARCH INNOVATIONS 9-4: 1433-075X - 14 SEPTEMBER 2005 RUSTUM ROY1, W.A. TILLER2, IRIS BELL3, M. R. HOOVER4

The most distinctive feature of bonding in liquid water is not only the well-known hydrogen bonds, but the necessary presence of a wide range of Van der Waals bonds between and among the various oligomeric (cluster) structural units. It is this range of very weak bonds that could account for the remarkable ease of changing the structure of water, which in turn could help explain the well-known anomalies in its properties.

"UNIFIED DESCRIPTION OF TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT HYDROGEN BOND

REARRANGEMENTS IN LIQUID WATER," BY JARED D. SMITH, CHRISTOPHER D. CAPPA, KEVIN R. WILSON, RONALD C. COHEN, PHILLIP L. GEISSLER, AND RICHARD J. SAYKALLY, APPEARS IN THE OCTOBER 4, 2005 EDITION OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

In a paper recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the Berkeley Lab and C Berkeley scientists explain how changes in the water molecule occur with the help of Raman Spectroscopy. At any given moment, some of the hydrogen bonds in a quantity of liquid water must be greatly distorted; otherwise the water would be in a solid, rather than a liquid state. However, according to first author Jared Smith, a member of Saykally's research group who performed the key experiments, their new and more detailed Raman spectroscopy measurements show that any broken hydrogen bonds in a sample of water reform so quickly within approximately 200 femtoseconds that they have no impact.

UNIFIED DESCRIPTION OF TEMPERATURE-DEPENDENT HYDROGEN BOND REARRANGEMENTS IN LIQUID WATER," BY JARED D. SMITH, CHRISTOPHER D. CAPPA, KEVIN R. WILSON, RONALD C. COHEN, PHILLIP L. GEISSLER, AND RICHARD J. SAYKALLY, APPEARS IN THE OCTOBER 4, 2005 EDITION OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

"The widely held notion that there exists a stable population of water molecules with broken hydrogen bonds in the liquid appears to be incorrect," said Smith. "Hydrogen bonds in liquid water are continually breaking and reforming and moving around. Our experimental results and calculations are in excellent agreement with the continuum model."

MOLECULAR MODELS OF WATER

Besides the cluster model that we had described before, another two models are more widely accepted. The crystal lattice model with vacancies The clathrate model

MOLECULAR MODELS OF WATER

The crystal lattice model with vacancies

is based on the reasonable assumption that after melting, even at temperatures above 0C, the crystal structure of ice is partially preserved. As temperature increases, due to intensified thermal motion, more and more molecules are detached from the lattice pieces. These enter the internal cavities of the remaining hexagonal crystals, resulting in a more dense packing of molecules. Thus, this model is able to predict the increase of density during melting and also in the interval of 0 to 4 C, attaining the maximal density at this latter temperature. As temperature is further increased, the thermal agitation diminishes the chance for the molecules to enter the crystals, and also reduces the number and size of the intact crystals, yielding a looser packing, i.e. lower density. In conclusion, this model accounts for the anomaly of water in what concerns the temperature dependence of its density, and is in agreement with the studies that reveal the presence of crystalline structures in the liquid phase.

MOLECULAR MODELS OF WATER

The clathrate model is based on the observation that, in the presence of a hydrophobic system (like a noble gas atom), water molecules give rise to structures that resemble a football used in soccer (a dodecahedron), witch include the hydrophobic system. Such closed networks of water molecules that enclose a cavity are called clathrates. They contain a relatively small number of water molecules (typically less than 100). Experimental results indicate the presence of small clathrates also in pure water.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

1. At the pressure of 1 atm, the freezing and boiling temperatures of water served as reference points of the Celsius temperature scale: and .

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

2. The specific heat (heat capacity of the unit mass) of water is ca = 4180 J/kg* K, which is a remarkably high value in comparison with other substances. This implies a great thermal inertia of water, i.e. a temperature change is accomplished by a large amount of exchanged heat (Q = mcw T). This feature of water has a great biological importance, for most of these processes need a constant temperature. The high water content of human tissue (around 75%) confers it a great thermal inertia, and the heat dissipated during metabolic processes is not able to modify the temperature of the medium. For example, muscle contraction is a notably exoterm process, and without this thermal buffer, it would produce a local hyperthermia.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

3. The specific latent heat of evaporation is very high, =2.250.000 J/kg, making transpiration and evaporation through the lungs a highly effective cooling mechanism.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

4. The high specific latent heat of solidification, t = 334.000 J/kg has less physiological implications, but is of great importance from the ecological point of view. It causes solidliquid phase changes to occur slowly.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

5. At variance with normal substances, which become more dense as temperature is lowered, water behaves anomalously, having maximal density of 1 g/cm3 at t = 4C. As one lowers the temperature starting from this value and down to 0C, the density of water decreases and during freezing it suffers further decrease. This property has a great biological impact because it prevents the total freezing of lakes during cold periods: ice being less dense than water at 0C, it will float on water, and freezing process starts from the surface. The ice coating serves as a thermal insulator and the water of about 4C is a suitable medium for living systems.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

6. The electrical permittivity of water is also very high, its relative value is r = 80. This feature makes it a good solvent for ionic compounds. Once an ion is separated from its partner, a large number of dipoles will surround each charge, and, by screening, the electrostatic attraction between the opposite charges is reduced, along with the probability of their recombination.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

Transparency Water is relatively transparent to visible light, near ultraviolet light, and far-red light, but it absorbs most ultraviolet light, infrared light, and microwaves. Most photoreceptors and photosynthetic pigments utilize the portion of the light spectrum that is transmitted well through water. Microwave ovens take advantage of water's opacity to microwave radiation to heat the water inside of foods. The very weak onset of absorption in the red end of the visible spectrum lends water its intrinsic blue hue.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

The color of water is a subject of both scientific study and popular misconception. While relatively small quantities of water are observed by humans to be transparent, pure water has a light blue color which becomes a deeper blue as the thickness of the observed sample increases. The blue color is caused by selective absorption and scattering of the light spectrum. Impurities dissolved or suspended in water may give water different colored appearances.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

Surface tension and wetting A molecule within the bulk of a liquid experiences attractions to neighboring molecules in all directions, but since these average out to zero, there is no net force on the molecule. For a molecule that finds itself at the surface, the situation is quite different; it experiences forces only sideways and downward, and this is what creates the stretched-membrane effect.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

The distinction between molecules located at the surface and those deep inside is especially prominent in H2O, owing to the strong hydrogen-bonding forces. The difference between the forces experienced by a molecule at the surface and one in the bulk liquid gives rise to the liquid's surface tension.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

The surface molecule is attracted to its neighbors below and to either side, but there are no attractions pointing in the 180 solid angle angle above the surface. As a consequence, a molecule at the surface will tend to be drawn into the bulk of the liquid. But since there must always be some surface, the overall effect is to minimize the surface area of a liquid.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

The geometric shape that has the smallest ratio of surface area to volume is the sphere, so very small quantities of liquids tend to form spherical drops. As the drops get bigger, their weight deforms them into the typical tear shape.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

Wetting
Take a plastic mixing bowl from your kitchen, and splash some water around in it. You will probably observe that the water does not cover the inside surface uniformly, but remains dispersed into drops. The same effect is seen on a dirty windshield; turning on the wipers simply breaks hundreds of drops into thousands. By contrast, water poured over a clean glass surface will wet it, leaving a uniform film.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

When a liquid is in contact with a solid surface, its behavior depends on the relative magnitudes of the surface tension forces and the attractive forces between the molecules of the liquid and of those comprising the surface. If an H2O molecule is more strongly attracted to its own kind, then surface tension will dominate, increasing the curvature of the interface. This is what happens at the interface between water and a hydrophobic surface such as a plastic mixing bowl or a windshield coated with oily material. A clean glass surface, by contrast, has -OH groups sticking out of it which readily attach to water molecules through hydrogen bonding; this causes the water to spread out evenly over the surface, or to wet it. A liquid will wet a surface if the angle at which it makes contact with the surface is more than 90. The value of this contact angle can be predicted from the properties of the liquid and solid separately.

SOME OF THE PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER THAT ARE WORTHWHILE TO MENTION ARE:

If we want water to wet a surface that is not ordinarily wettable, we add a detergent to the water to reduce its surface tension. A detergent is a special kind of molecule in which one end is attracted to H2O molecules but the other end is not; the latter ends stick out above the surface and repel each other, cancelling out the surface tension forces due to the water molecules alone.

TO REMEMBER

The following facts are well established:

H2O molecules attract each other through the special type of dipole-dipole interaction known as hydrogen bonding a hydrogen-bonded cluster in which four H2Os are located at the corners of an imaginary tetrahedron is an especially favorable (low-potential energy) configuration, but... the molecules undergo rapid thermal motions on a time scale of picoseconds (1015 second), so the lifetime of any specific clustered configuration will be fleetingly brief.

TO REMEMBER

A variety of techniques including infrared absorption, neutron scattering, and nuclear magnetic resonance have been used to probe the microscopic structure of water. The information garnered from these experiments and from theoretical calculations has led to the development of around twenty "models" that attempt to explain the structure and behavior of water. More recently, computer simulations of various kinds have been employed to explore how well these models are able to predict the observed physical properties of water.

THE ANOMALOUS PROPERTIES OF WATER

Water has long been known to exhibit many physical properties that distinguish it from other small molecules of comparable mass. Chemists refer to these as the "anomalous" properties of water. Water is one of the few known substances in that its solid form is less dense than the liquid. The plot at the right shows how the volume of water varies with the temperature; the large increase (about 9%) on freezing shows why ice floats on water and why pipes burst when they freeze.

THE ANOMALOUS PROPERTIES OF WATER

The expansion between 4 and 0 is due to the formation of larger hydrogen-bonded aggregates. Above 4, thermal expansion sets in as vibrations of the OH bonds becomes more vigorous, tending to shove the molecules farther apart.

THE ANOMALOUS PROPERTIES OF WATER

The other widely-cited anomalous property of water is its high boiling point. As this graph shows, a molecule as light as H2O "should" boil at around 90C; that is, it would exist in the world as a gas rather than a liquid if H-bonding were not present. Notice that Hbonding is also observed with fluorine and nitrogen.

THE ANOMALOUS PROPERTIES OF WATER

In literature sources there can be found fourty-one anomalous properties of water At this link , there is an overview of them. http://www1.lsbu.ac.uk/water/anmlies.html

ICE- THE STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALLINE ICE

Snowflakes and snow crystals are made of ice, and pretty much nothing more. A snow crystal, as the name implies, is a single crystal of ice. A snowflake is a more general term; it can mean an individual snow crystal, or a few snow crystals stuck together, or large agglomerations of snow crystals that form "puff-balls" that float down from the clouds.

ICE- THE STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALLINE ICE

The water molecules in an ice crystal form a hexagonal lattice, as shown at right (the two structures show different views of the same crystal). Each red ball represents an oxygen atom, while the grey sticks represent hydrogen atoms. There are two hydrogens for each oxygen, so the chemical formula is H2O. The six-fold symmetry of snow crystals ultimately derives from the six-fold symmetry of the ice crystal lattice.

ICE- THE STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALLINE ICE

Snowflakes are not frozen raindrops. Sometimes raindrops do freeze as they fall, but this is called sleet. Sleet particles don't have any of the elaborate and symmetrical patterning found in snow crystals. Snow crystals form when water vapor condenses directly into ice, which happens in the clouds. The patterns emerge as the crystals grow.

ICE- THE STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALLINE ICE

The most basic form of a snow crystal is a hexagonal prism, shown in several examples below. This structure occurs because certain surfaces of the crystal, the facet surfaces, accumulate material very slowly. A hexagonal prism includes two hexagonal "basal" faces and six rectangular "prism" faces, as shown in the figure. Note that a hexagonal prism can be plate-like or columnar, depending on which facet surfaces grow most quickly. When snow crystals are very small, they are mostly in the form of simple hexagonal prisms. But as they grow, branches sprout from the corners to make more complex shapes.

ICE- THE STRUCTURE OF CRYSTALLINE ICE

More information about ice crystals please use this article INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING REPORTS ON PROGRESS IN PHYSICS Rep. Prog. Phys. 68 (2005) 855895 doi:10.1088/0034-4885/68/4/R03 The physics of snow crystals Kenneth G Libbrecht Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics, California Institute of Technology 264-33, Pasadena,

You may download it from: www.student1.ro

EFFECTS OF SOLUTES ON WATER STRUCTURE: FREE WATER AND BOUND WATER

By solution of various substances in water, modifications are induced also in the molecular structure of the solvent. These are caused by the interplay of water-solute and water-water interactions. One of the most common examples is the case of a strong electrolyte solute, which results in the presence of anions and cations in water. These ions and the sorrounding water molecules exhibit ion-dipole interactions because of the permanent dipole moment of water molecules

EFFECTS OF SOLUTES ON WATER STRUCTURE: FREE WATER AND BOUND WATER

The oxygen atom of each water molecule is oriented towards positive ions, and away from the negative ones. The binding of water molecules to ions is referred to as ion hydration, and the number of water molecules from the immediate vicinity of an ion is called coordination number. In the Table we listed some examples.
Ions Na+ K+ C
2+

Coordination numbers 88 44 10 2

EFFECTS OF SOLUTES ON WATER STRUCTURE: FREE WATER AND BOUND WATER

Hydration water has peculiar properties as compared to pure water: its density is higher, the freezing and boiling temperatures differ, etc. Another case of solutes, which have an impact on water structure, are the substances made of molecules with permanent dipole moment, just like water. The resulting dipole-dipole interactions will assure an easy integration of these molecules into the water structure. Such substances are termed hydrophilic (water-attracting). Molecules, which are not capable of forming hydrogen bonds with water, interact with the solvent by weak Van der Waals forces.

EFFECTS OF SOLUTES ON WATER STRUCTURE: FREE WATER AND BOUND WATER

A stable state is attained by increasing the number of hydrogen bonds between the sorrounding water molecules, giving birth to clathrates that enclose the nonpolar molecule. Such substances are called hydrophobic, and, in the situation when they are free to move in water, they tend to associate, as if they had attracted each other. The name attributed to this kind of attraction is that of hydrophobic bonds.

EFFECTS OF SOLUTES ON WATER STRUCTURE: FREE WATER AND BOUND WATER For hydrofobic bonds, it has to be kept in mind that this is an effect of water, not a genuine bond between the hydrophobic molecules. It appears only in an aqueous medium, and has its origin in the fact that energetically it is more favourable for clathrates to join, and keep their contents together in a single, larger cavity.

EFFECTS OF SOLUTES ON WATER STRUCTURE: FREE WATER AND BOUND WATER Macromolecules (proteins and nucleic acids) have in their componence both kinds of groups, polar and nonpolar. Thus, in an aqueous medium, the hydrophilic groups either interact electrostatically with each other or bind water molecules, while the nonpolar ones join due to hydrophobic bonds. Thus, the water from the immediate neighbourhood of a macromolecule is highly structured, it is bound water

BOUND WATER
. Experimental studies revealed that this kind of water has unusual physico-chemical properties: Its freezing temperature is very low (below 20C). It doesn't have the usual solvent properties of free water. It is not transported by osmosis through semipermeable membranes (it is osrmotically nontransferable).

"PURE" WATER

"Pure" water
To a chemist, the term "pure" has meaning only in the context of a particular application or process. The distilled or de-ionized water we use in the laboratory contains dissolved atmospheric gases and occasionally some silica, but their small amounts and relative inertness make these impurities insignificant for most purposes. When water of the highest obtainable purity is required for certain types of exacting measurements, it is commonly filtered, de-ionized, and triple-vacuum distilled. But even this "chemically pure" water is a mixture of isotopic species

DRINKING WATER

Our ordinary drinking water, by contrast, is never chemically pure, especially if it has been in contact with sediments. Groundwaters (from springs or wells) always contain ions of calcium and magnesium, and often iron and manganese as well; the positive charges of these ions are balanced by the negative ions carbonate/bicarbonate, and occasionally some chloride and sulfate. Groundwaters in some regions contain unacceptably high concentrations of naturally-occuring toxic elements such as selenium and arsenic.

DRINKING WATER

One might think that rain or snow would be exempt from contamination, but when water vapor condenses out of the atmosphere it always does so on a particle of dust which releases substances into the water, and even the purest air contains carbon dioxide which dissolves to form carbonic acid. Except in highly polluted atmospheres, the impurities picked up by snow and rain are too small to be of concern.

DRINKING WATER

Various governments have established upper limits on the amounts of contaminants allowable in drinking water; the best known of these are the U.S. EPA Drinking Water Standards.
http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/index.html

WHAT KIND OF WATER IS MOST HEALTHY TO DRINK?

I am not aware of any evidence indicating that any one type of water (including highly "pure" water) is more beneficial to health than any other, as long as the water is pathogen-free and meets accepted standards such as those mentioned above. For those who are sensitive to residual chlorine or still have concerns, a good activated-carbon filter is usually satisfactory. More extreme measures such as reverse-osmosis or distillation are only justified in demonstrably extreme situations.

WHAT KIND OF WATER IS MOST HEALTHY TO DRINK?

"Pure" rainwater always contains some dissolved carbon dioxide which makes it slightly acidic. When this water comes into contact with sediments, it tends to dissolve them, and in the process becomes alkaline. The pH of drinking water can vary from around 5 to 8, and it has no effect on one's health. The idea that alkaline water is better to drink than acidic water is widely promoted by alternative-health practitioners. Acidic water is sometimes described by engineers as "aggressive"; this refers to its tendency to corrode metal distribution pipes, but in this sense it is no more active than the hydrochloric acid already present in your gastric fluid!

WHAT KIND OF WATER IS MOST HEALTHY TO DRINK?

One occasionally hears that mineral-free water, and especially distilled water, are unhealthy because they "leach out" required minerals from the body. Such claims are greatly overblown; the fact is that mineral ions do not pass through cell walls by ordinary osmotic diffusion, but rather are actively transported by metabolic processes. Nevertheless, animal experiments and some human epidemiological evidence suggesting that ion-free water is less desirable than water containing moderate quantities (200-400 mg/mL) of electrolytes (ions), especially calcium and magnesium.

WHAT KIND OF WATER IS MOST HEALTHY TO DRINK?

It is well known that people who are engaged in heavy physical activity or are in a very hot environment should avoid drinking large quantities of even ordinary water. In order to prevent serious electrolyte imbalance problems, it is necessary to make up for the salts lost through perspiration. This can be accomplished by ingestion of salted foods or beverages (including "sports beverages"), or salt tablets.

THE ROLE OF WATER IN LIVING SYSTEMS

About two-thirds to 3/4 of the weight of an adult human consists of water. About two-thirds of this water is located within cells, while the remaining third consists of extracellular water, mostly in the blood plasma and in the interstitial fluid that bathes the cells. This water, amounting to about five percent of body weight (about 5 L in the adult), serves as a supporting fluid for the blood cells and acts as a means of transporting chemicals between cells and the external environment. It is basically a 0.15M solution of salt (NaCl) containing smaller amounts of other electrolytes, the most important of which are bicarbonate (HCO3) and protein anions.

THE ROLE OF WATER IN LIVING SYSTEMS

Water, as one of the basic constituents of any living organism, participates actively at the fundamental processes of life. Among the most important roles played by water in the human body (and not only), we may mention: It represents the most important transport medium for ions, molecules, macro-molecules and also some cells. Transport is vital for substance exchange between different parts of the body at various levels: organs, cells, cell organelles, etc. It is the solvent of living matter in both intra- and extracellular domains. It is the substance transported by osmosis. It is the environment in which all the important biochemical reactions are taking place: redox processes, hydrolysis, enzymatic reactions, etc.

THE ROLE OF WATER IN LIVING SYSTEMS

The water content of our bodies is tightly controlled in respect to both total volume and its content of dissolved substances, particulary ions. Drinking constitutes only one source of our water; many foods, especially those containing cells (fruits, vegetables, meats) are an important secondary source. In addition, a considerable amount of water (350-400 mL/day) is produced metabolically that is, from the oxidation of glucose derived from foods.

THE ROLE OF WATER IN LIVING SYSTEMS

The quantity of water exchanged within various parts of our bodies is surprisingly large. The kidneys process about 180 L/day, returning most of the water to the blood stream. Lymph flow amounts to 1-2.5 L/day, and turnover of fluids in the bowel to 8-9 L/day. These figures are dwarfed by the 80,000 L/day of water that diffuses in both directions through capillary walls.

THE ROLE OF WATER IN LIVING SYSTEMS

Water has a substantial role in thermoregulation, which is the collective name of processes meant for maintaining body temperature within narrow limits, in spite of internal and external perturbations. During pregnancy, water assures mechanical protection to the embryo.

THE ROLE OF WATER IN LIVING SYSTEMS

The higher the intensity of metabolic processes in an organ, the greater its water content. This argument makes it easy to understand the agedependence of the average water content as well as the way water is shared by different organs. For example, embryonic tissue contains about 97% water, a newborn child has about 76%, while the water content over 60 years of age is about 46%.

THE ROLE OF WATER IN LIVING SYSTEMS

Tissue hair teeth skeleton and fat tissue nervous tissue Liver skeletal muscles kidney Heart Lung Brain blood plasma embryo Water content (%) 4 10 30 70 75 75 76 77 81 85 93 97

THE ROLE OF WATER IN LIVING SYSTEMS

Intracelular and extracelular water are made by free and bound water. The free water is the solvent for various substances, it has active role in the transport of nutrients towards the cells and of catabolic residues away from them. The bound water is made of water molecules that are enslaved by macromolecules via electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. It has unusual physical properties as described in detail in the previous section.

WATER UPTAKE AND ELIMINATION

A living body, in its normal state, maintains the equilibrium of water balance by assuring the equality of the inward and outward water flows: Q uptake = Q elimination In the case when the uptake dominates, Q uptake > Q elimination one speaks about positive water balance, leading to water excess, and is a result of excess water intake, decreased water excretion and/or renal sodium loss. The signs and symptoms of this state includes intense thirst, anorexia, muscle cramps, weakness, etc.

WATER UPTAKE AND ELIMINATION

If elimination has a higher flow for a while, Q uptake < Q elimination a water deficit results. The causes include decreased water intake or increased water loss. A relative water deficit may occur also in the case of increased solute ingestion or metabolic disorders. The resulting hyperosmolarity has signs and symptoms like restlessness, tremulousness, tonic spasm, etc.

WATER UPTAKE AND ELIMINATION

Deviations from the equilibrium water balance are especially dangerous in the case of children because they have a more intense metabolism. The normal water flow, corresponding to one 1 kg body weight, is approximately 6 times higher for a child than for an adult. Accute dehydrations are more frequent in the case of babies. Premature babies are especially sensitive in this respect because, compared to their body weight, they loose high amounts of water by transpiration and the renal concentration mechanisms are not fully developed yet.

WATER UPTAKE AND ELIMINATION

Ultimately, total water intake plus metabolic production must balance water loss. For a healthy unstressed adult, the figures shown here are typical minimum values. Notice that the major loss is through simple breathing. The minimal urinary loss is determined by the need to remove salts and other solutes taken in with foods or produced by metabolic processes. Individuals (such as many elderly) having reduced kidney function produce more dilute urine, and must therefore take in more water. And of course stress factors such as strenuous exercise, exposure to very high temperatures, or diarrhea can greatly increase the need for water intake.

Loss through breath: 800 mL Minimal sweat loss: 100 mL Fecal loss: 200 mL Minimal urine loss: 500 mL Total: 1600 mL