Ask A Scientist Chemistry Archive

Question:  What is the crystal lattice formation of water?
 bryan j daly

Answer:
The answer to your question depends on the pressure
and temperature. Ice takes on a variety of crystal forms.
It also depends on whether the ice is formed slowly or
rapidly.
 
Generally speaking, though, ice is typically an "open" structure
with each water molecule "hydrogen bonded" to four other molecules.
Oxygen atoms are at the corners of puckered, six-membered rings.
If you have a molecular model kit, make a model of C6H12
(cyclohexane) and imagine that every carbon is an oxygen.
Then imagine that every bond has a hydrogen atom between the two
oxygens. Finally, ignore one of the hydrogens hanging off of each
carbon in your model...and imagine this structure somehow
repeated throughout a crystal in a regular fashion. There you go!
Note that every H2O molecule is hydrogen-bonded to two other
H2O molecules.
 
-prof topper