Spectroscopy, isotope effects and

Department of Chemistry, University of California, Davis, Calif. 95616 

One of the most valuable techniques available to any kind of spectroscopist is that of isotopic substitution. This paper will discuss a few applications of the method to problems in the optical spectroscopy of atoms, diatomic and small polyatomic molecules, the vibrations of transition metal ccmplexes, hydrogen bonding, solvation, and optical activity. We shall, not treat either magnetic resonance or microwave spectroscopy. 

Any review which treats optical spectroscopy must acknowledge at its outset the magnificent series of volumes on this subject by Herzberg (lj2,5,y. Hie textbooks by Walker and Straw ( ), and King (6) also treat many of the subjects we shall discuss at a somewhat less advanced level. 

In the domain of atomic spectroscopy, the first direct observation of deuterium was made in 1952 by Urey, Brickwedde, and Murphy (, who observed weak satellites of four of the BaJmer lines of hydrogen which were shifted to shorter wavelengths by amounts ranging from 1.79 1 for H at 6556 to 1.12  

ACS Symposium Series American Chemical Society Washington, DC, 1975. 

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