PECULIAR EFFECTS IN THE INFRARED ABSORPTION SPECTRA OF CERTAIN MOLECULES

Author Institution: Chemical Physics Research Laboratory, The Dow Chemical Company“Unusual effects which are believed to be of general occurrence have been studied in infrared absorption spectra of certain molecules. Studies of the Raman spectra have aided in the interpretation. It is postulated that an interaction between certain vibrational energy levels occurs, this interaction being appreciable in only a fraction of the molecules. This restricted perturbation is possible because of the large spread of the energy values of one of these levels caused by intermolecular interactions. At any instant some of the molecules are in a suitable condition for a relatively strong perturbation to occur while in most of the molecules the two levels are too far apart for appreciable interaction. Theoretical band shapes have been derived and these are compared with the observed spectra of several molecules.