Question

Urea is an organic compound widely used as a fertilizer. Its solubility in water allows it to be made into aqueous fertilizer solutions and applied to crops in a spray. What is the maximum theoretical number of water molecules that one urea molecule can hydrogen bond with?

Answer 1

8 water molecules

Step-by-step explanation:

The hydrogen bond may be H-O~H-N or H-N~H-O; in the first one, the hydrogen bond is between an oxygen atom and a hydrogen which is covalently bonded to a nitrogen atom. The second one is the hydrogen bond of a nitrogen atom with a hydrogen covalently bonded to a oxygen one. The first case would be the hydrogen bonds that water may form with the hydrogen of the urea; the second ones would be the hydrogen bonds that urea may form with water molecules. So, for each nitrogen in urea there would be a hydrogen bond, and for each hydrogen too. Finally, the oxygen in the urea molecule may form hydrogen bonds with water as well, but it has two lone pairs to donate, so the oxygen atom may form hydrogen bond with 2 water molecules:

N=(2 because of the oxygen atom of the urea)+(4 because of the hydrogen bonded to nitrogen)+2(because of the nitrogens).

N=8.