Pure rotational spectroscopy

The methyl iodide molecule is studied using microwave (pure rotational) spectroscopy. The following integral governs the rotational selection rules for transitions labeled J, M, K... 

Rotational quanta are much smaller than vibrational quanta, and correspond to electromagnetic radiation in the microwave region, typically in the range 103-105MHz (lcm-1 = 3.3 x 104 MHz). Rotational transitions can be excited directly, in microwave absorption spectroscopy (pure rotational spectroscopy), but can also be observed in the rotational fine structure in high-resolution vibrational or electronic spectra. 

Pure rotational spectroscopy in the microwave or far IR regions joins electron diffraction as one of the two principal methods for the accurate determination of structural parameters of molecules in the gas phase. The relative merits of the two techniques should therefore be summarised. Microwave spectroscopy usually requires sample partial pressures some two orders of magnitude greater than those needed for electron diffraction, which limits its applicability where substances of low volatility are under scrutiny. Compared with electron diffraction, microwave spectra yield fewer experimental parameters more parameters can be obtained by resort to isotopic substitution, because the replacement of, say, 160 by lsO will affect the rotational constants (unless the O atom is at the centre of the molecule, where the rotational axes coincide) without significantly changing the structural parameters. The microwave spectrum of a very complex molecule of low symmetry may defy complete analysis. But the microwave lines are much sharper than the peaks in the radial distribution function obtained by electron diffraction, so that for a fairly simple molecule whose structure can be determined completely, microwave spectroscopy yields more accurate parameters. Thus internuclear distances can often be measured with uncertainties of the order of 0.001 pm, compared with (at best) 0.1 pm with electron diffraction. If the sample is a mixture of gaseous species (perhaps two or more isomers in equilibrium), it may be possible to unravel the lines due to the different components in the microwave spectrum, but such resolution is more difficult to accomplish with electron diffraction. 

The main conclusion from these results is that the observed hyperfine splitting is determined primarily by a linear combination of the hyperfine constants corresponding to the three separate interactions. The spectrum depends upon the axial component ofthe total magnetic hyperfine interaction, which we designate / 3/2 (= a + (1 /2)(b + 2c/3)), and in a good case (a) system it is not usually possible to separate the individual contributions from the microwave magnetic resonance spectrum alone. The solution to the problem lies in the combination of these studies with pure rotational spectroscopy, as we shall see later in this chapter. 

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