Intermolecular forces

Question 1

What are the Van de Waals forces?

Answer 1

These are the interactions between the electron clouds in atoms and molecules.

Compared to covalent and ionic bonds, these forces are weaker and they don’t involve electron sharing or transfer.

Question 2

What is an electron cloud dipole?

Answer 2

It is phenemenon in which the electron cloud of an atom or molecule is not symetrically distributed, it generates two sections of the electron cloud, one partially negatively charged and one partially positively charged.

Question 3

What is the London dispertion force?

Answer 3

A type of intermolecular force that arises from the formation of instantaneous dipoles on molecules and atoms whose electron clouds are normally symetric.

This interaction forms from the random fluctuations of the distribution of electron density in the atoms and molecules.

Question 4

What are the dipole-dipole interactions?

Answer 4

These are a type of intermolecular forces generated between molecules that have permanent dipoles.

The permanent dipoles are generated by the geometric distribution of the atoms and their electron clouds in the molecules.

Question 5

What is a Hydrogen bond?

Answer 5

Is a type of interaction that is formed when an hydrogen bonded to a highly electronegative atom is atracted by a highly electronegative atom of a nearby molecule.

Only F, O, N atoms are electronegative enough to form hydrogen bonds.