Is anyone familiar with van der waals forces in plasma, and or maybe van der waals forces in general?

 

I need some information on them and google has not been very helpful.

 

any help would be appreciated

They are forces between electric dipoles. The specifics depend on whether the dipoles are permanent or induced.

In a plasma, coulombic interactions would almost completely drown out Van der Waals Forces. Van der Waals (especially the induced dipole, induced dipole interactions; London dispersion) forces are the weakest of the the intermolecular forces, where as coulombic interactions (electric forces between ions) are the strongest.

 

Larger molecules have a larger Van der Waals surface and therefore experience more energetic London dispersion force interactions. Polarizability adds to the effect as well. I'm really talking mostly about the London dispersion forces here.

 

Dipole-Dipole forces are just that; Permanent dipoles interacting between polar molecules.

Edited February 17, 201114 yr by mississippichem