Van der Waals force

In physical chemistry, the van der Waals forces (or van der Waals interaction), named after Dutch scientist Johannes Diderik van der Waals, are the residual attractive or repulsive forces between molecules or atomic groups that do not arise from covalent bonds, nor ionic bonds. It can be shown that van der Waals forces are of the same origin as the Casimir effect, arising from quantum interactions with the zero-point field. The resulting van der Waals forces can be attractive or repulsive.

The term includes:

It is also sometimes used loosely as a synonym for the totality of intermolecular forces. Van der Waals forces are relatively weak compared to covalent bonds, but play a fundamental role in fields as diverse as supramolecular chemistry, structural biology, polymer science, nanotechnology, surface science, and condensed matter physics. Van der Waals forces define many properties of organic compounds and molecular solids, including their solubility in polar and non-polar media.

In low molecular weight alcohols, the hydrogen-bonding properties of their polar hydroxyl group dominate other weaker van der Waals interactions. In higher molecular weight alcohols, the properties of the nonpolar hydrocarbon chain(s) dominate and define the solubility. Van der Waals forces quickly vanish at longer distances between interacting molecules.

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