# chem: Van der Waals' bonds: to measure the tensile strength and the force required to pull the crystal until it breaks

<< Van der Waals' are weak electric forces that attract atoms to one another through subtle shifts in the atom's electron configurations >>

AA << grew and compared three different types of crystals: one pure gallium selenide, one with 0.6 percent tellurium and one with 10.6 percent tellurium. To test the effect on the tellurium on interlayer bonding, [AA] invented the equivalent of a crystal sandwich opener. Their system is able to measure with exquisite detail the tensile strength, the force required to pull the crystal until it breaks >>

Opening the Van der Waals' Sandwich. Oct 31, 2017

https://publishing.aip.org/publishing/journal-highlights/opening-van-der-waals-sandwich

Tadao Tanabe, Shu Zhao, et al. Effect of adding Te to layered GaSe crystals to increase the van der Waals bonding force featured. Journal of Applied Physics  2017; 122 (16) doi: 10.1063/1.4986768

http://aip.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1063/1.4986768