Van der Waals force re-measured: Physicists verify nonlinear increase with growing molecular size
Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - 05:00
in Physics & Chemistry
Van der Waals forces act like a sort of quantum glue on all types of matter. Scientists from Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany, experimentally determined for the first time all of the key details of how strongly the single molecules bind to a surface. They demonstrated that the forces do not just increase with molecular size, but that they even grow disproportionately fast. Their findings could help to improve simulation methods for chemistry, physics, biology, and materials science.