How are Van der Waals forces and ionic bonds similar?

1 Answer
Truong-Son N.
Aug 1, 2017

They're not that similar...

van der Waals forces are short-range intermolecular forces, specifically the interaction of loose, fluctuating PARTIAL charges, i.e. temporary dipoles... dynamic in time, influenced by instantaneously-changing charge density distributions.

http://www.tpub.com/

Ionic bonds are interactions of FULL charges, i.e. due to complete transfer of valence electrons. They are permanent charges, and mostly static in time.

https://depts.washington.edu/

NOTE: Ionic bonding should not be confused with ion-pairing interactions:

https://ww2.chemistry.gatech.edu/

Aspartate and arginine are clearly not bonding to each other, but their full charges are still interacting.

Related questions
See all questions in Van der Waals Interactions
Impact of this question
6379 views around the world
You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License