How many hydrogen bonds in these compounds?

manpreet Best Answer 3 years ago

We usually get some questions about how many hydrogen bonds these compounds can create, we use it to differentiate between the boiling point of each one of them so it would be great if you could help me.

So what I know that H2OHX2O has 4 hydrogen bonds those are 2 from hydrogen atoms and 2 from other molecules that has 2 hydrogen atoms connected to the 2 lone pair of electron that the oxygen has.

In HFHF, It has 2 hydrogen bonds. The same explanation implies here. In NH3NHX3, 2 hydrogen bonds because NN doesn't have the required amount of lone pairs to make more hydrogen bonds.

But what I really want to know is about alcohols. In the way that I am explaining it, it should have 2-3 hydrogen bonds but when I check some books and articles they say that it only creates 1.

So if you can explain how many each of them creates and what it depends on that would be awesome.