We clean everything with water, but what is it that makes water intrinsically “clean”? Is it just because most things in the world are hydrophilic and water’s really good at carrying dirty things away?
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Actually, the cleaning action generally comes from chemical or mechanical action. Adding soap or an acid helps chemically break down whatever you are trying to clean, and mechanical scrubbing helps physically break large chunks into smaller particles.
The polar nature of water, where one side has a positive charge and the other has a negative charge, along with the strength of the bond between hydrogen and oxygen, means that water really likes to stay as H2O rather than splitting up into H+ and -OH. The dirt and grime that is being cleaned will dissolve into the cleaning chemical, and the cleaning chemical will then dissolve into the water, which carries it down the drain.
Since the cleaning chemicals dissolve well in water, a final rinse of pure water is used to ensure all of the cleaner gets washed off of the item being cleaned. Water also dries and leaves behind little to no residue, meaning a cleaned, rinsed, and dried item doesn’t have anything extra hanging out on it.
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