Diatomic intermetallic molecules, dissociation

A number of diatomic intermetallic molecules containing a rare-earth and a platinum group metal have been observed and their bond dissociation energies... 

The most commonly measured property for these types of molecules is their dissociation energy or atomization energy. According to a recent review ( ) these have been experimentally determined for approximately 50 homonuclear diatomic metal molecules, 15 polyatomic metal molecules (including germanium but excluding silicon and antimony), 110 diatomic intermetallic compounds and more than 20 polyatomic intermetallic molecules. 

The most reliable values for the bond energies of the majority of these molecules have been obtained by using Knudsen effusion mass spectrometry ( ). For some of them, notably the alkali dimers, and Group IIA and Group IIB dimers, as well as for some of their intermetallic diatomic molecules, optical spectroscopic methods have provided the best or only determination of dissociation energies ( 3, ). 

A comparison of experimental values for intermetallic diatomic molecules with gold with the corresponding value calculated by the Pauling model and by the atomic cell model has been given in Table 6 of Reference ( ). Table 7 of Reference ( ) shows a comparison between experimental dissociation energies with values calculated by the atomic cell model and the empirical valence bond model. Table 9 of Reference ( ) takes Mledema s refinements (43) of the atomic cell model into account In these comparisons. 

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