__________________________________________________________________________________

An Assignment On

Covalent Bond and van der waals Forces

Course Title : Inorganic Pharmacy - 1

Course Code : PHR 111

Submitted To:

Subrato Kumar Barman

B.Pharm, M. Pharm (JnU)

Lecturer

Department of Pharmacy

Ranada Prasad Shaha University

Submitted By:

Student Name : Jayed Sadnan Moon

ID No. : 20100114

Batch : 15th

Department of Pharmacy

Ranada Prasad Shaha University

Date of Submission: 17 June 2020

 Contents

 Introduction

 Definition

 London dispersion force

 Van der Waals forces between macroscopic objects

 In modern technology

 Conclusion
 Introduction

The van der Waals force, named after Dutch scientist Johannes Diderik van der Waals, is a
distance-dependent interaction between atoms or molecules. Unlike ionic or covalent bonds,
these attractions do not result from a chemical electronic bond; they are comparatively weak
and therefore more susceptible to disturbance. The van der Waals force quickly vanishes at
longer distances between interacting molecules.

Van der Waals force plays a fundamental role in fields as diverse as supramolecular
chemistry, structural biology, polymer science, nanotechnology, surface science, and
condensed matter physics. It also underlies many properties of organic compounds and
molecular solids, including their solubility in polar and non-polar media.

If no other force is present, the distance between atoms at which the force becomes repulsive
rather than attractive as the atoms approach one another is called the van der Waals contact
distance; this phenomenon results from the mutual repulsion between the atoms' electron
clouds. The van der Waals force has the same origin as the Casimir effect, arising from
quantum interactions with the zero-point field.

The term van der Waals force is sometimes used loosely for all intermolecular forces. The
term always includes the London dispersion force between instantaneously induced dipoles.
It is sometimes applied to the Debye force between a permanent dipole and a corresponding
induced dipole[citation needed] or to the Keesom force between permanent molecular
dipoles.
 Definition

Van der Waals forces include attraction and repulsions between atoms, molecules, and
surfaces, as well as other intermolecular forces. They differ from covalent and ionic bonding
in that they are caused by correlations in the fluctuating polarizations of nearby particles.

Being the weakest of the weak chemical forces, with a strength between 0.4 and 4kJ/mol,
they may still support an integral structural load when multitudes of such interactions are
present.

The force results from a transient shift in electron density. Specifically, the electron density
may temporarily shift more greatly to one side of the nucleus. This generates a transient
charge to which a nearby atom can be either attracted or repelled. When the interatomic
distance of two atoms is greater than 0.6 nm the force is not strong enough to be observed. In
the same vein, when the interatomic distance is below 0.4 nm the force becomes repulsive.

Intermolecular forces have four major contributions:

1. A repulsive component resulting from the Pauli exclusion principle that prevents the
collapse of molecules.
2. Attractive or repulsive electrostatic interactions between permanent charges (in the
case of molecular ions), dipoles (in the case of molecules without inversion center),
quadrupoles (all molecules with symmetry lower than cubic), and in general between
permanent multipoles. The electrostatic interaction is sometimes called the Keesom
interaction or Keesom force after Willem Hendrik Keesom.
3. Induction (also known as polarization), which is the attractive interaction between a
permanent multipole on one molecule with an induced multipole on another. This
interaction is sometimes called Debye force after Peter J.W. Debye.
4. Dispersion (usually named London dispersion interactions after Fritz London), which
is the attractive interaction between any pair of molecules, including non-polar atoms,
arising from the interactions of instantaneous multipoles.
Returning to nomenclature, different texts refer to different things using the term "van der
Waals force". Some texts describe the van der Waals force as the totality of forces; others
mean all the attractive forces.

All intermolecular/van der Waals forces are anisotropic (except those between two noble gas
atoms), which means that they depend on the relative orientation of the molecules. The
induction and dispersion interactions are always attractive, irrespective of orientation, but the
electrostatic interaction changes sign upon rotation of the molecules. That is, the electrostatic
force can be attractive or repulsive, depending on the mutual orientation of the molecules.
When molecules are in thermal motion, as they are in the gas and liquid phase, the
electrostatic force is averaged out to a large extent, because the molecules thermally rotate
and thus probe both repulsive and attractive parts of the electrostatic force. Sometimes this
effect is expressed by the statement that "random thermal motion around room temperature
can usually overcome or disrupt them" (which refers to the electrostatic component of the van
der Waals force). Clearly, the thermal averaging effect is much less pronounced for the
attractive induction and dispersion forces.

The Lennard-Jones potential is often used as an approximate model for the isotropic part of a
total (repulsion plus attraction) van der Waals force as a function of distance.

Van der Waals forces are responsible for certain cases of pressure broadening (van der Waals
broadening) of spectral lines and the formation of van der Waals molecules. The London-van
der Waals forces are related to the Casimir effect for dielectric media, the former being the
microscopic description of the latter bulk property. The first detailed calculations of this were
done in 1955 by E. M. Lifshitz. A more general theory of van der Waals forces has also been
developed.
The main characteristics of van der Waals forces are:

 They are weaker than normal covalent and ionic bonds.

 Van der Waals forces are additive and cannot be saturated.
 They have no directional characteristic
 They are all short-range forces and hence only interactions between the nearest
particles need to be considered (instead of all the particles). Van der Waals attraction
is greater if the molecules are closer.
 Van der Waals forces are independent of temperature except dipole – dipole
interactions.

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 chains dominate and determine their
solubility.

London dispersion force

London dispersion forces, named after the German-American physicist Fritz London, are
weak intermolecular forces that arise from the interactive forces between instantaneous
multipoles in molecules without permanent multipole moments. In and between organic
molecules the multitude of contacts can lead to larger contribution of dispersive attraction,
particularly in the presence of heteroatoms. London dispersion forces are also known as
'dispersion forces', 'London forces', or 'instantaneous dipole–induced dipole forces'. The
strength of London dispersion forces is proportional to the polarizability of the molecule,
which in turn depends on the total number of electrons and the area over which they are
spread. Hydrocarbons display small dispersive contributions, the presence of heteroatoms
lead to increased LD forces as function of their polarizability, e.g. in the sequence
RI>RBr>RCl>RF.[9] In absence of solvents weakly polarizable hydrocarbons form due to
dispersive forces crystals; their sublimation heat is a measure of the dispersive interaction.
 Van der Waals forces between macroscopic objects

For macroscopic bodies with known volumes and numbers of atoms or molecules per unit
volume, the total van der Waals force is often computed based on the "microscopic theory" as
the sum over all interacting pairs. It is necessary to integrate over the total volume of the
object, which makes the calculation dependent on the objects' shapes. For example, the van
der Waals' interaction energy between spherical bodies of radii R1 and R2 and with smooth
surfaces was approximated in 1937 by Hamaker by:

where A is the Hamaker coefficient, which is a constant (~10−19 − 10−20 J) that depends on
the material properties (it can be positive or negative in sign depending on the intervening
medium), and z is the center-to-center distance; i.e., the sum of R1, R2, and r (the distance
between the surfaces): {\displaystyle \ z=R_{1}+R_{2}+r}\ z=R_{1}+R_{2}+r.

In the limit of close-approach, the spheres are sufficiently large compared to the distance
between them; i.e., {\displaystyle \ r\ll R_{1}}{\displaystyle \ r\ll R_{1}} or {\displaystyle
R_{2}}R_{{2}}, so that equation (1) for the potential energy function simplifies to:

The van der Waals force between two spheres of constant radii (R1 and R2 are treated as
parameters) is then a function of separation since the force on an object is the negative of the
derivative of the potential energy function, This yields:
The van der Waals forces between objects with other geometries using the Hamaker model
have been published in the literature.

From the expression above, it is seen that the van der Waals force decreases with decreasing
size of bodies. Nevertheless, the strength of inertial forces, such as gravity and drag/lift,
decrease to a greater extent. Consequently, the van der Waals forces become dominant for
collections of very small particles such as very fine-grained dry powders (where there are no
capillary forces present) even though the force of attraction is smaller in magnitude than it is
for larger particles of the same substance. Such powders are said to be cohesive, meaning
they are not as easily fluidized or pneumatically conveyed as their more coarse-grained
counterparts. Generally, free-flow occurs with particles greater than about 250 μm.

The van der Waals force of adhesion is also dependent on the surface topography. If there are
surface asperities, or protuberances, that result in a greater total area of contact between two
particles or between a particle and a wall, this increases the van der Waals force of attraction
as well as the tendency for mechanical interlocking.

The microscopic theory assumes pairwise additivity. It neglects many-body interactions and
retardation. A more rigorous approach accounting for these effects, called the "macroscopic
theory" was developed by Lifshitz in 1956. Langbein derived a much more cumbersome
"exact" expression in 1970 for spherical bodies within the framework of the Lifshitz theory
while a simpler macroscopic model approximation had been made by Derjaguin as early as
1934. Expressions for the van der Waals forces for many different geometries using the
Lifshitz theory have likewise been published.
 In modern technology

In May 2014, DARPA demonstrated the latest iteration of its "Geckskin" technology by
having a 100 kg researcher (saddled with 20 kg of recording gear) scale an 8-metre-tall (26 ft)
glass wall using only two climbing paddles. Tests are ongoing, but DARPA hopes one day to
make the technology available for military use, giving soldiers Spider-Man-like abilities in
urban combat.

Conclusion

The weak forces we call Van der Waals forces are very important we can see from above
discussion. Van der Waals forces affect various properties of gases, and also give rise to an
attractive force between two solid objects separated by a small gap, which is important in
adhesion and in the stability of colloids.