4.39 Define hydrogen bond. Is it weaker or stronger than the van der Waals forces?
Hydrogen bond can be defined as the attractive force acting between the hydrogen atom of one molecule with the electronegative atom (F, O or N) of another molecule.
Because of the difference between electro-negativities, the bond pair between hydrogen and the electronegative atom gets drifted towards a more electronegative atom. As a result, the hydrogen atom becomes slightly positively charged.
Hydrogen bonds are stronger than the van der Waals forces because H-bonds are considered as an extreme form of dipole-dipole interaction.