Rotational energy, diatomic molecules

The quantum mechanical rotational energy for molecules is not continuously variable. For the rigid diatomic molecule the rotational energy levels E rot are given by... 

Although a diatomic molecule can produce only one vibration, this number increases with the number of atoms making up the molecule. For a molecule of N atoms, 3N-6 vibrations are possible. That corresponds to 3N degrees of freedom from which are subtracted 3 translational movements and 3 rotational movements for the overall molecule for which the energy is not quantified and corresponds to thermal energy. In reality, this number is most often reduced because of symmetry. Additionally, for a vibration to be active in the infrared, it must be accompanied by a variation in the molecule s dipole moment. 

The interaction energy can be written as an expansion employing Wigner rotation matrices and spherical hamionics of the angles [28, 130], As a simple example, the interaction between an atom and a diatomic molecule can be expanded hr Legendre polynomials as... 

These results do not agree with experimental results. At room temperature, while the translational motion of diatomic molecules may be treated classically, the rotation and vibration have quantum attributes. In addition, quantum mechanically one should also consider the electronic degrees of freedom. However, typical electronic excitation energies are very large compared to k T (they are of the order of a few electronvolts, and 1 eV corresponds to 10 000 K). Such internal degrees of freedom are considered frozen, and an electronic cloud in a diatomic molecule is assumed to be in its ground state f with degeneracy g. The two nuclei A and... 

The direct dissociation of diatomic molecules is the most well studied process in gas-surface dynamics, the one for which the combination of surface science and molecular beam teclmiques allied to the computation of total energies and detailed and painstaking solution of the molecular dynamics has been most successful. The result is a substantial body of knowledge concerning the importance of the various degrees of freedom (e.g. molecular rotation) to the reaction dynamics, the details of which are contained in a number of review articles [2, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40 and 41]. 

The rotational motion of a linear polyatomic molecule can be treated as an extension of the diatomic molecule case. One obtains the Yj m (0,(1)) as rotational wavefunctions and, within the approximation in which the centrifugal potential is approximated at the equilibrium geometry of the molecule (Re), the energy levels are ... 

The Hamiltonian in this problem contains only the kinetic energy of rotation no potential energy is present because the molecule is undergoing unhindered "free rotation". The angles 0 and (j) describe the orientation of the diatomic molecule s axis relative to a laboratory-fixed coordinate system, and p is the reduced mass of the diatomic molecule p=mim2/(mi+m2). 

As for diatomic molecules, there are stacks of rotational energy levels associated with all vibrational levels of a polyatomic molecule. The resulting term values S are given by the sum of the rotational and vibrational term values... 

The name dissociation energy is given to the work required to break up a diatomic molecule which is in its lowest rotation-vibrational state, and to leave the two particles (either atoms or ions) at rest in a vacuum. This quantity, which will be denoted by D , corresponds to the length of the arrow in Fig. 7 or Fig. 8a, where the length is the vertical distance between the lowest level of the molecule and the horizontal line which... 

If, now, we continue warming the substance sufficiently, we will reach a point at which the kinetic energies in vibration, rotation, and translation become comparable to chemical bond energies. Then molecules begin to disintegrate. This is the reason that only the very simplest molecules—diatomic molecules—are found in the Sun. There the temperature is so high (6000°K at the surface) that more complex molecules cannot survive. 

Quantum mechanics predicts that a diatomic molecule has a set of rotational energy levels ej given by... 

Equation (4.18) applies only to a diatomic or linear polyatomic molecule. Similar kinds of rotational energy levels are present in more complicated molecules. We will describe the various kinds in more detail in Chapter 10. 

This procedure assumes that the translational, rotational, vibrational, and electronic energy levels are independent. This is not completely so. In the instance of diatomic molecules, we will see how to correct for the interaction. For more complicated molecules we will ignore the correction since it is usually a small effect. 

The rotational energy levels of (a) a heavy diatomic molecule and (b) a light diatomic molecule. Note that the energy levels are closer together for the heavy diatomic molecule. Microwaves arc absorbed when transitions take place between neighboring energy levels. 

A linear molecule, such as any diatomic molecule, carbon dioxide, and ethyne (acetylene, HC=CH), can rotate about two axes perpendicular to the line of atoms, and so it has two rotational modes of motion. Its average rotational energy is therefore 2 X jkT = kT, and the contribution to the molar internal energy is NA times this value ... 

Finally, the rotational partition function of a diatomic molecule follows from the quantum mechanical energy level scheme ... 

Molecules possess discrete levels of rotational and vibrational energy. Transitions between vibrational levels occur by absorption of photons with frequencies v in the infrared range (wavelength 1-1000 p,m, wavenumbers 10,000-10 cm , energy differences 1240-1.24 meV). The C-0 stretch vibration, for example, is at 2143 cm . For small deviations of the atoms in a vibrating diatomic molecule from their equilibrium positions, the potential energy V(r) can be approximated by that of the harmonic oscillator ... 

We next apply these classical relationships to the rigid diatomic molecule. Since the molecule is rotating freely about its center of mass, the potential energy is zero and the classical-mechanical Hamiltonian function H is just the kinetic energy of the two particles,... 

The molecular constants o , B, Xe, D, and ae for any diatomic molecule may be determined with great accuracy from an analysis of the molecule s vibrational and rotational spectra." Thus, it is not necessary in practice to solve the electronic Schrodinger equation (10.28b) to obtain the ground-state energy o(R). 

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