van der Waals force

Scientific  

1. A weak force of attraction between electrically neutral molecules that collide with or pass very close to each other. The van der Waals force is caused by the attraction between electron-rich regions of one molecule and electron-poor regions of another (the attraction between the molecules seen as electric dipoles). The attraction is much weaker than a chemical bond. Van der Waals forces are the intermolecular forces that cause molecules to cohere in liquid and solid states of matter, and are responsible for surface tension and capillary action.

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Example Sentences

Their idea was to use two surface forces, namely the Casimir force for attracting the two halves and the van der Waals force for making them stick together.

From Science Daily

Such fluctuations may be either thermal or quantum in origin, and they give rise to surface forces such as the van der Waals force and the Casimir force which act at different length scales but are rooted in the same underlying physics.

From Science Daily

The spatulae exert an attraction between neutral molecules called a van der Waals force.

From National Geographic

This causes a mutual attraction, known as the van der Waals force, between carbon atoms in adjacent graphene layers.

From Nature

Dr. Thomas said that back-of-the-envelope calculations indicated that it might be plausible, with the jets of gas and dust acting as wind and the particles held together through intermolecular attraction known as the van der Waals force instead of gravity.

From New York Times