Hydrogen bond facts for kids

A hydrogen bond is a low kind type of dipole-dipole bond that exists between an electronegative molecule and a hydrogen molecule bonded to another electronegative molecule. This type of bond always involves a hydrogen atom. That explains the name.

Hydrogen bonds can occur between molecules (intermolecularly), or within different parts of a single molecule (intramolecularly). The typical hydrogen bond is stronger than van der Waals forces, but weaker than covalent, ionic and metallic bonds.

Intermolecular hydrogen bonding is responsible for the high boiling point of water (100 °C). Most molecules with hydrogen bonding have high boiling points and melting points. Because hydrogen bonds are what make water stick together so well, they also help other molecules that can make hydrogen bonds dissolve in water. This is because the molecules form bonds with the hydrogen in the water, too, helping them dissolve.

• George A. Jeffrey. An Introduction to Hydrogen Bonding (Topics in Physical Chemistry). Oxford University Press, USA (March 13, 1997). ISBN: 0-19-509549-9
• A New Intermolecular Interaction: Unconventional Hydrogen Bonds with Element-Hydride Bonds as Proton Acceptor Robert H. Crabtree, Per E. M. Siegbahn, Odile Eisenstein, Arnold L. Rheingold, and Thomas F. Koetzle Acc. Chem. Res. 1996, 29(7), 348 - 354.
• Polymerization of Formic Acid under High Pressure Alexander F. Goncharov, M. Riad Manaa, Joseph M. Zaug, Richard H. Gee, Laurence E. Fried, and Wren B. Montgomery Phys. Rev. Lett. 2005, 94, 065505.
• F. Cordier, M. Rogowski, S. Grzesiek and A. Bax. Observation of through-hydrogen-bond (2h)J(HC') in a perdeuterated protein. J Magn Reson. (1999) 140: 510-2.
• R. Parthasarathi, V. Subramanian, N. Sathyamurthy.Hydrogen Bonding Without Borders: An Atoms-In-Molecules Perspective. J. Phys. Chem. (A) (2006) 110: 3349-3351.

Images for kids

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  AFM image of naphthalenetetracarboxylic diimide molecules on silver-terminated silicon, interacting via hydrogen bonding, taken at 77 K. ("Hydrogen bonds" in the top image are exaggerated by artifacts of the imaging technique.)

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  An example of intermolecular hydrogen bonding in a self-assembled dimer complex. The hydrogen bonds are represented by dotted lines.

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  Crystal structure of hexagonal ice. Gray dashed lines indicate hydrogen bonds

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  Structure of nickel bis(dimethylglyoximate), which features two linear hydrogen-bonds.

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  The structure of part of a DNA double helix

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  Para-aramid structure

See also

In Spanish: Enlace de hidrógeno para niños