Intermolecular and Surface Forces, 3rd Edition

8 Special Interactions: Hydrogen-Bonding and Hydrophobic and Hydrophilic Interactions

8.1 The Unique Properties of Water

Water is such an unusual substance that it has been accorded a special place in the annals of phenomena dealing with intermolecular forces, and two types of “special interactions”—the hydrogen bond and the hydrophobic effect—are particularly relevant to the interactions of water. The literature on the subject is vast (Franks, 1972–1982; Ball, 1999), not only because water is the most important liquid on earth but also because it has so many interesting and anomalous properties.

For a liquid of such a low molecular weight, water has unexpectedly high melting and boiling points and latent heat of vaporization.¹ There are, of ...