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Intermolecular potentials — past, present, future

Nature Materials volume 2, pages 501–503 (2003)Cite this article

When tackling the most fundamental of questions in materials science — what holds matter together — is the concept of an intermolecular potential still useful? Will it survive the emergence of more accurate and increasingly affordable ab initio calculations?

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Figure 1: Roger Joseph Boscovich developed the first coherent description of atomic theory and attempted to describe the structure of the universe through a single force law.
Figure 2: Interaction potential energy as a function of the intermolecular distance.

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Acknowledgements

The author thanks A. MacKay for useful information on Boscovich's work.

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  1. Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Messina and Istituto Nazionale di Fisica della Materia, Messina, 98166, Italy

    Gianpietro Malescio

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  1. Gianpietro Malescio
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Malescio, G. Intermolecular potentials — past, present, future. Nature Mater 2, 501–503 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat949

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