Any
of several intermolecular attractive forces not
resulting from ionic charges; in this volume, only London dispersion forces are
described by this name. Descriptions of the potential energy of nonbonded interactions follow the
convention of expressing van der Waals attractive forces and overlap repulsion forces as a single van der Waals
potential.
Attractive
or repulsive forces between neutral atoms
and molecules.
They can be divided in forces between particles with and without permanent
dipoles. Atoms
and molecules
without a permanent dipole moment attract each other through fluctuating
dipole moments (dispersion forces or London dispersion forces). Van der
Waals forces between particles with a permanent dipole moment can be either
attractive or repulsive. Named after J.D. van der Waals, 1837-1923.
