Resumen de Teaching Intermolecular Forces to First-Year Undergraduate Students

Gavin D. Peckham, Ian J. McNaught

• A recent article in this Journal provides an excellent overview of intermolecular forces of attraction (IMFs) at a first-year level by using plots of boiling point versus the number of electrons per molecule for the hydrides of groups IV–VII. However, references to IMFs in introductory chemistry courses are typically extended to other physical properties, such as melting point, viscosity, surface tension, and so forth. At the first-year level, we feel that a degree of circumspection is required lest it be assumed that all of these physical properties necessarily have a similar, simple correspondence to IMFs as that which is generally shown by boiling points.