van der Waals radius
E926080
The van der Waals radius is a measure of the effective size of an atom or molecule that reflects how close it can approach another particle without forming a chemical bond.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| van der Waals radius canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T11436329 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: van der Waals radius Context triple: [Johannes Diderik van der Waals, notableConcept, van der Waals radius]
-
A.
Wigner-Seitz radius r_s
The Wigner-Seitz radius r_s is a dimensionless parameter in condensed matter physics that quantifies the average spacing between electrons in an electron gas, commonly used to characterize correlation strength and phases such as the Wigner crystal.
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B.
Bohr radius
The Bohr radius is a fundamental physical constant that represents the most probable distance between the nucleus and the electron in a hydrogen atom in its ground state.
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C.
Wigner–Seitz cell
The Wigner–Seitz cell is a primitive region of space in a crystal lattice that contains all points closer to a given lattice point than to any other, serving as a fundamental building block in solid-state physics and crystallography.
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D.
Avogadro constant
The Avogadro constant is the fundamental physical constant that specifies the number of constituent particles, usually atoms or molecules, in one mole of a substance.
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E.
Debye length
The Debye length is a characteristic scale in plasmas and electrolytes over which electric potentials are screened due to the collective response of mobile charges.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: van der Waals radius Target entity description: The van der Waals radius is a measure of the effective size of an atom or molecule that reflects how close it can approach another particle without forming a chemical bond.
-
A.
Wigner-Seitz radius r_s
The Wigner-Seitz radius r_s is a dimensionless parameter in condensed matter physics that quantifies the average spacing between electrons in an electron gas, commonly used to characterize correlation strength and phases such as the Wigner crystal.
-
B.
Bohr radius
The Bohr radius is a fundamental physical constant that represents the most probable distance between the nucleus and the electron in a hydrogen atom in its ground state.
-
C.
Wigner–Seitz cell
The Wigner–Seitz cell is a primitive region of space in a crystal lattice that contains all points closer to a given lattice point than to any other, serving as a fundamental building block in solid-state physics and crystallography.
-
D.
Avogadro constant
The Avogadro constant is the fundamental physical constant that specifies the number of constituent particles, usually atoms or molecules, in one mole of a substance.
-
E.
Debye length
The Debye length is a characteristic scale in plasmas and electrolytes over which electric potentials are screened due to the collective response of mobile charges.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (55)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
atomic property
ⓘ
chemical property ⓘ intermolecular parameter ⓘ molecular property ⓘ |
| alsoKnownAs | vdW radius ⓘ |
| approximatedBy | half of the van der Waals contact distance between two identical atoms ⓘ |
| characterizes |
closest approach without bonding
ⓘ
nonbonded contact distance ⓘ |
| definedBy | distance of closest approach between nonbonded atoms ⓘ |
| dependsOn |
chemical environment
ⓘ
element type ⓘ molecular context ⓘ |
| describes |
effective size of a molecule
ⓘ
effective size of an atom ⓘ |
| differentFrom |
Bohr radius
ⓘ
atomic radius ⓘ covalent radius ⓘ ionic radius ⓘ metallic radius ⓘ |
| importantFor |
understanding condensed phases
ⓘ
understanding crystal packing ⓘ understanding molecular recognition ⓘ |
| measuredIn |
angstrom
ⓘ
picometer ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Johannes Diderik van der Waals ⓘ |
| relatedTo |
molecular volume
ⓘ
steric volume ⓘ van der Waals volume ⓘ |
| relatesTo |
intermolecular interactions
ⓘ
nonbonded interactions ⓘ van der Waals forces ⓘ |
| tabulatedIn |
chemical handbooks
ⓘ
force field parameter sets ⓘ |
| usedIn |
Lennard-Jones potential
ⓘ
linked to:
Lennard-Jones
Monte Carlo simulations ⓘ computational chemistry ⓘ crystallography ⓘ drug design ⓘ force field parameterization ⓘ interatomic potential functions ⓘ materials science ⓘ molecular dynamics simulations ⓘ molecular mechanics ⓘ molecular modeling ⓘ molecular surface calculations ⓘ packing coefficient calculations ⓘ protein–ligand docking ⓘ solvent-accessible surface area calculations ⓘ steric hindrance analysis ⓘ surface science ⓘ |
| usedToEstimate |
excluded volume
ⓘ
molecular size ⓘ packing density ⓘ steric clashes in molecular structures ⓘ |
| variesAcross | periodic table ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: van der Waals radius Description of subject: The van der Waals radius is a measure of the effective size of an atom or molecule that reflects how close it can approach another particle without forming a chemical bond.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.