Imagine a situation in which an unknown environmental agent stimulates the spontaneous loss of the lone pairs of electrons on ALL water molecules. Write a blog post that describes how this occurrence would change the face of the world as we know it. Your post must be at least 3 paragraphs and I challenge you to be as creative as possible in your description. Decide on your own title for the post. Good luck!
First off, a water molecule (H2O) is made up of an one oxygen and two hydrogen molecules. Due to its bent structure, water is a polar. This is formed due to the two hydrogen atoms pushing(arrows) towards the single O atom. However, removing the oxygen (O) atom, water would become a linear molecule. In addition, if water were to become linear, it would lose its dipole moments.
If a water molecule was to turn into a linear molecule, there would be no dipole moment. Losing the oxygen atom would cause the world to be quite strange and destructive. Water would lose its high boiling point and become increasingly easy to become flammable. Because of this, any water exposed near a flame would most likely result in an actual fire drill. Being polar, water has the ability to form London dispersion and dipole-dipole forces but without the “O”, the linear molecule would only have the potential to form the London dispersion.
Water would also become dangerous for humans to consume since we risk the possibility of being burnt every time we cook or light a match. On a hot day, all the oceans, rivers, lakes, etc. would evaporate and become as dry as the Sahara Desert. In addition, many molecules would no longer be able to latch onto water as there would only be two partially positive “heads”. To conclude, losing the lone pair is much more serious than it seems since it would turn a perfectly chemically balanced world into one where H2O is no longer usable.