Intermolecular forces
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Chemists have to understand intermolecular forces to make sense of the properties of molecular compounds.
Intermolecular forces are somewhere between ten and a hundred times weaker than covalent bonds.
Intermolecular forces have a very important part to play in the properties and behaviour of biological molecules such a carbohydrates, proteins and nucleic acids.
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Tutorials
- Sorted FAQs on Intermolecular Forces
- Some exam "Dos and Don'ts": Intermolecular forces
- Intermolecular forces: audio tutorial
Webguides
Recently Asked Questions
- Why is the boiling point of lead tetrachloride less than the boling points of silicon, germanium and tin tetrachlorides? 280410
- The boiling points (in degrees celcius) for silicon tetrachloride, germanium and tin tetrachloride are 58, 83 and 114 respectively. What is will the bp of lead tetrachloride be if it does not decompose? It would seem as if the trend is that the bp of the group 4 chlorides increase as you go down the group. Is this due to van der Waals' forces? 280410
- Ionic compounds dissolve in water, which arises because of the attraction between positive and negative charges. For example, the salt's positive ions (e.g. Ag+) attract the partially-negative oxygens in H2O. Non-aqueous solvents can be polar like water, but why are ionic compounds insoluble in non-aqueous solvents? Similarly, why are simple molecular substances insoluble in water but soluble in non-aqueous solvents? 280410
Tests
updated: 09 July 2003
