An Activity to Teach Students to Identify Intermolecular Forces in Introductory Chemistry Courses

When general chemistry students encounter intermolecular forces, they are often overwhelmed with attempting to determine which type of interaction will be present in a solution or mixture. The use of a decision table is a useful tool to teach students to evaluate a chemical system. The decision table provided herein can help students predict the strongest intermolecular interaction (IMF) present in a chemical solution. Once students are able to identify the IMF present, they can start to use these ideas to explain more complex phenomena.