Can anyone provide a detailed explanation on the change between ice -> water -> steam

This is why allowing the "asker" who didn't know anything in the first place to pick the "best answer" by some someone who also is conceptually challenged is a flawed system.

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Jimmy is correct for the most part. There is a wide range of bond energies both for covalent bonds and for bonds with high ionic character, but in general covalent bonds tend to be greater in strength than ionic bonds.

My concern is that you may be trying to apply ionic or covalent bonding to your first question, and that's a problem. The strength of intramolecular bonds has nothing to do with the phase changes of water. The phase changes of water are due to the breaking of intermolecular bonds, primarily hydrogen bonds and to a less extent the attraction between polar water molecules which is called dipole-dipole attraction.

In solid ice the only molecular motion is vibrational (vibrational kinetic energy) since the H2O molecules are "locked" into a hexagonal pattern due to hydrogen bonding. As the ice is warmed and melts at a constant temperature, the hydrogen bonds are broken to the extent that the hexagonal pattern is disrupted, The molecules are free to move move about (translational kinetic energy) and rotate (rotational kinetic energy) as well as vibrate (vibrational kinetic energy). In the liquid state there is still hydrogen bonding between molecules except that each hydrogen bond is short-lived. Dipole-dipole attraction continues to be a major factor as well. At the boiling point (where the vapor pressure is equal to the atmospheric pressure) the remaining hydrogen bonding and dipole-dipole attractions are broken and energetic water molecules go to the gas phase where there is little interaction between molecules.

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