Why is water the universal solvent?

Why is water the universal solvent?

Water is called the universal solvent due to its polar nature as well as its property of forming hydrogen bonds with other molecules. Ã’šÃ‚ The water molecule consists of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom. Water is considered as universal solvent as it can dissolve mostly everything quickly and effectively. It can be used to clean any type of surfaces without any harm. Some of the materials that can be cleaned properly by water are human body, cooking utensils, surfaces everywhere, clothes and other fabrics, vehicles, tools, and in many more activities.

All the biological cells need water every day to perform the metabolism and excretion processes. Water dissolves the salts and toxic chemicals in our body and brings them out mixed up with it in the form of urine and fecal matter. All the biochemical reactions that are occurring in our body are carried out in the presence of water. It can be said that water plays important role in the chemistry of life.

Since oxygen atom in water has negative charge and hydrogen has positive charge, the water molecule is considered polar. Due to its polar nature each of the water molecule apart from forming a covalent bonding within it, also forms a weak bond with the other water molecule. These weak bonds are responsible for the water to break them down and make the water to behave as solvent. Due to this breaking of weak hydrogen bonds, water is able to form other bonds with other substances and dissolve them. This property of water is helping it to manage the chemistry of life. As water acts as a good solvent, physicians suggest us to drink more water every day so that it cleans our system. The cleaning property of water is again its ability to dissolve the substances easily by attracting them through its positive and negative charges.