Publication Date:
2011-08-16
Description:
The geometry of the bending of a linear triatomic molecule is analyzed, and an expression for the average rotational constant is derived. A harmonic oscillator model of C3 is fitted to the observed rotational constant within 0.6%. The bond distance between atoms at zero bending is 1.287 A according to this model; this is noticeably larger than the average internuclear distance of 1.277 A for the vibrational ground state. The first order perturbation solutions for the vibrational energy levels, taking into account the effect of a quartic perturbation potential, closely match observed levels. For a square well potential model of C3, the effect of curvilinear motion in bending is similar to that found for the harmonic oscillator model, though the decreases in energy are about twice as large. In both models, the average energy decrease is relatively constant at approximately 10% over a wide range of vibrational quantum number.
Keywords:
PHYSICS, ATOMIC, MOLECULAR, AND NUCLEAR
Type:
Journal of Chemical Physics; 60; Feb. 1
Format:
text
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