Photochemical and spectroscopic selection rules

We have now looked at the way photons are absorbed. Photons of UV and visible light cause electrons to promote between orbitals. Infrared photons have less energy, and are incapable of exciting electrons between orbitals, but they do allow excitation between quantized vibrational levels. The absorption of microwaves, which are less energetic still, effects the excitation between quantized rotational levels. 

In this section, we shall look at the way these various absorptions are analysed by spectroscopists. There are four kinds of quantized energy translational, rotational, vibrational and electronic, so we anticipate four corresponding kinds of spectroscopy. When a photon is absorbed or generated, we must conserve the total angular momentum in the overall process. So we must start by looking at some of the rules that allow for intense UV-visible bands (caused by electronic motion), then look at infrared spectroscopy (which follows vibrational motion) and finally microwave spectroscopy (which looks at rotation). 

The absorption of some photons does not lead to bond cleavage, but to molecular rearrangements. 

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