4. Electron Sharing and      Covalent Bonds  
     Oxygen and Water

The structure of solid water, or ice, is shown on the right. Each oxygen atom is surrounded tetrahedrally by oxygens of neighboring molecules. An oxygen atom has two O-H bonds extended toward two of these neighbors, and is hydrogen bonded to them. In turn, this oxygen atom receives two hydrogen bonds from two other neighbors. In one form of ice the oxygen atoms are arranged like the carbon atoms in diamond. The more common ice structure shown here represents another way of connecting atoms by tetrahedral bonds. If the ice structure is thought of as stacked layers of tetrahedra connected by hydrogen bonds, then the structure shown on the right and the diamond like structure merely represent different ways of stacking the layers.

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