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.

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