When cleaning, cooking, washing we all use water as a solvent/agent. What makes it so special ?
In: Chemistry
Water is made up of a single oxygen atom flanked by two hydrogen atoms. The hydrogen atoms each share their single electron with the oxygen. Due to the arrangement and configuration of electrons in the oxygen atom, the way in which it shares these electrons causes the molecule to be “bent.” So the oxygen atom sticks out a bit and the hydrogen atoms stick out a bit the other way.
The side with the oxygen atom is where most of the electrons congregate, and therefore has a negative charge. The side with the hydrogen atoms then has a positive charge. This basically means that water molecules are like tiny magnets. This rather simple fact is what gives water a lot of its amazing properties (such as the fact that its solid form, ice, is less dense than its liquid form).
Because of this arrangement, we call water molecules “polar” and it allows it to attract and stick to a wide variety of other kinds of molecules. If the other molecule is negatively charged? The hydrogens grab it. If it’s positively charged? The oxygen grabs it. Basically anything else that is also polar (which is a great many things) can be dissolved by water.
This means that things that are non-polar do not dissolve well (if at all) in water for example, oil. This is why we can add things to water, like soap, to help with this. Soap is a very complex molecule that has one end that is good at sticking to water and another end that is good at sticking to fatty things like oils. So the water grabs the soap and the soap grabs the oil and allows you to wash it away.
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