Structure of Triatomic Molecules

Abstract

RECENT investigations of infra-red and Raman spectra of triatomic molecules have shown that molecules with an odd number of electrons, such as ClO₂ and NO₂, are similar in structure to the molecules SO₂ and CO₂, each with one more electron. This observation suggests that the triangular molecules have structures depending on the number of valence electrons binding the three atoms together, and that a scheme might be formulated for obtaining the structures of these molecules from the total number of available valence electrons.