Effective refractive index and intermolecular forces associated with a phase of functional groups

Cases in which a functional groups form distinct phases are known in material science in general and specifically in polymer and surfactant sciences. To calculate the van der Waals forces associated with such phases there is a need to evaluate the refractive index of those phases. We expand and generalize a method to estimate the refractive index of such ‘functional group phase’ and discuss how to use the refractive indices to calculate the interaction energies associated with such functional group phases and thereby modify the total theoretically calculated van der Waals forces.