What is the term for interactions between water molecules and different surfaces that lead to water adhering to those surfaces?

The term for interactions between water molecules and different surfaces that lead to water adhering to those surfaces is adhesion. Adhesion refers to the attraction that occurs between water molecules and other substances. This property allows water to stick to various materials, such as glass, plant tissues, or other solids.

For instance, when water is placed on a clean glass surface, it forms a droplet that tends to spread out rather than bead up. This behavior is due to the adhesive forces between the water molecules and the glass, which are stronger than the cohesive forces among the water molecules themselves. Adhesion is crucial in many biological processes, such as the movement of water up plant stems against gravity through the vascular system, where water molecules adhere to the walls of the xylem vessels.

Cohesion refers to the attraction between water molecules themselves, while capillary action describes the ability of water to flow in narrow spaces without the assistance of external forces due to cohesive and adhesive interactions. Hydrogen bonding is the type of chemical bond that contributes to both cohesion and adhesion properties of water but does not specifically describe the interaction with different surfaces.