Question

In water, oxygen has a slight negative charge and hydrogen has a slight positive charge. So what type of bond does water have?

• A. Covalent bond
• B. Ionic bond
• C. Non-polar covalent bond
• D. Polar covalent bond

Answer 1

The correct option is D Polar covalent bond

The unequal division of charges in water makes the bond a polar covalent bond. This happens mainly because of the varying ability of different atoms to pull electrons towards themselves.

For example, in the covalent bond in a ${\text{H}}_2$ molecule, the electrons are shared equally because both atoms are the same. But when we have different atoms like in ${\text{H}}_2\text{O}$ things change because oxygen has the ability to pull electrons more strongly towards itself than hydrogen.

So the electrons are closer to oxygen than to hydrogen which makes oxygen slighly more negative and hydrogen slightly more positive. This creates a polarity and the bond is called a polar covalent bond.