Introduction to Protein Structure

van der Walls Interactions

One way to think about covalent molecules is to consider them  as a collection of nuclei surrounded by a "cloud" of electrons.

• The electrons with this clouds are always moving.
• Sometimes the one area of the cloud is more dense than another. This leads to the formation of a transient dipole within the molecule.
• The transient dipole can induce a dipole in an nearby molecule, by attracting its electrons.
• The attraction between the two oppositely oriented dipoles is termed a van der Walls interaction.

This is illustrated here:

Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2007 by Frank R. Gorga;   Page maintained by F.R. Gorga;   Last updated: 12-Mar-2007