Abstract
The chapter discusses the basic concepts of repulsive steric forces and the form, magnitude and range of total intermolecular pair potentials. A strong repulsive force arises when the electron clouds of atoms overlap at very small interatomic distances. This force determines how close two atoms or molecules can ultimately approach each other. The repulsive forces are sometimes referred to as exchange repulsion, hard core repulsion, steric repulsion, and Born repulsion, and they are characterized by having very short ranges and increase very sharply when two molecules come together. These forces belong to the category of quantum mechanical or chemical forces, and there is no general equation for describing their distance dependence. The chapter explains in detail the role of repulsive forces in noncovalently bonded solids. Packing of molecules and particles in solids is also discussed in the chapter. The chapter also elaborates the role of repulsive forces in liquids and the effect of liquid structure on molecular forces.
Published Version
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