9: Molecular Spectroscopy
- Page ID
- 424980
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Spectroscopy generally is defined as the area of science concerned with the absorption, emission, and scattering of electromagnetic radiation by atoms and molecules, which may be in the gas, liquid, or solid phase. Visible electromagnetic radiation is called light, although the terms light, radiation, and electromagnetic radiation can be used interchangeably. Spectroscopy played a key role in the development of quantum mechanics and is essential to understanding molecular properties and the results of spectroscopic experiments. It is used as a “stepping stone” to take us to the concepts of quantum mechanics and the quantum mechanical description of molecular properties in order to make the discussion more concrete and less abstract and mathematical.
- 9.1: The Electromagnetic Spectrum
- Electromagnetic radiation—light—is a form of energy whose behavior is described by the properties of both waves and particles. Some properties of electromagnetic radiation, such as its refraction when it passes from one medium to another are explained best by describing light as a wave. Other properties, such as absorption and emission, are better described by treating light as a particle.
- 9.2: Electronic Spectra Contain Electronic, Vibrational, and Rotational Information
- Molecules can also undergo changes in electronic transitions during microwave and infrared absorptions. The energy level differences are usually high enough that it falls into the visible to UV range; in fact, most emissions in this range can be attributed to electronic transitions.
- 9.3: The Franck-Condon Principle
- The Franck-Condon Principle describes the intensities of vibronic transitions, or the absorption or emission of a photon. It states that when a molecule is undergoing an electronic transition, such as ionization, the nuclear configuration of the molecule experiences no significant change. This is due in fact that nuclei are much more massive than electrons and the electronic transition takes place faster than the nuclei can respond. When the nucleus realigns itself with with the new electronic c
- 9.4: What Causes Molecules to Absorb UV and Visible Light
- This page explains what happens when organic compounds absorb UV or visible light, and why the wavelength of light absorbed varies from compound to compound.
- 9.5: Fluorescence and Phosphorescence
- Fluorescence and phosphorescence are types of molecular luminescence methods. A molecule of analyte absorbs a photon and excites a species. The emission spectrum can provide qualitative and quantitative analysis. The term fluorescence and phosphorescence are usually referred as photoluminescence because both are alike in excitation brought by absorption of a photon.
- 9.6: Jablonski diagram
- A Jablonski diagram is basically an energy diagram, arranged with energy on a vertical axis. The energy levels can be quantitatively denoted, but most of these diagrams use energy levels schematically. The rest of the diagram is arranged into columns. Every column usually represents a specific spin multiplicity for a particular species. However, some diagrams divide energy levels within the same spin multiplicity into different columns.
- 9.E: Molecular Spectroscopy (Exercises)
- These are exercises for Chapter 13 of the McQuarrie and Simon Textmap for Physical Chemistry.
Thumbnail: White light is dispersed by a prism into the colors of the visible spectrum. (CC BY-SA 3.0; D-Kuru).