Van der Waals attraction between spherical particles

Abstract

A new and single correction function which could be used with the London equation to account for the retardation effect on van der Waals attraction, was recently proposed. The function is simple enough to permit closed-form solutions to be obtained by the Hamaker-De Boer approach for macrobodies of a few different shapes. In this paper, closed-form solutions are presented for sphere-half space and sphere-sphere systems. The results are shown to agree well with those which employ Overbeek correction functions.