The Isotopes of Oxygen

Abstract

I HAVE recently been studying the vibrational energy functions of molecules, in connexion with a recalculation of heats of dissociation, and have noticed that the equation given by Dieke and Babcock (Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci., 13, 670; 1927) for the upper level of the atmospheric bands of oxygen has an unusually large coefficient for the n³ term. This, I now find, is due to an arithmetical error of 2 cm.^-1 in their location of the origin of the O – O band. The correct figure should be 13,120.97 cm.^-1, instead of their 13,122.97. The correction not only leads to the expected small coefficient for n³, but also brings their data into good agreement with the older constants, as given on p. 232 of the “Report on Molecular Spectra in Gases”. The resulting corrected equation is