Chemguide: Support for CIE A level Chemistry

This statement deals with hydrogen bonding.

Before you go on, you should find and read the statement in your copy of the syllabus.

You can't understand hydrogen bonding unless you first understand the concept of electronegativity. If you haven't already done so, you need to read learning outcome 3(h) before you go any further with this page. CIE have written these statements in the wrong order!

Hydrogen bonding

Read this page on hydrogen bonding.

Near the top of the page, you will find a mention of van der Waals forces, and a link to find out more about them. van der Waals forces are coming up soon in learning outcome 3(j), but you won't understand the hydrogen bonding page without having a reasonable idea what van der Waals forces are.

There are two ways you could do this:

• Follow that link, and read the van der Waals page quickly, so that you have some idea what they are about. Then finish off looking at hydrogen bonding, and come back to take a proper look at van der Waals forces later.

• Alternatively, stop at this point, and do learning outcome 3(j) before you do this one on hydrogen bonding. To my mind, it is actually more logical to look at van der Waals forces first, before you look at hydrogen bonding.

Whichever order you do it in, though, you must sort out the electronegativity work first.

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