Abstract
MODERN physical theories1 treat the fluorescence of all substances as the re-emission of previously absorbed radiation during the return of a chemical molecule to a stable form from an activated form, possessing a mean free life of 10− 8 to 10− 9 second. Since it has been shown that, in any atom, only the outermost, or valency, electrons are concerned in the absorption or emission of light waves of the visible order of frequency, it follows that fluorescent emission is necessarily concerned with the re-formation of stable valency bonds (or possibly stable ‘lone-pairs’ of electrons) from previously activated molecules.
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References
F. Perrin, Annales de physique, 12, 169–275; 1929.
Pringsheim, Zeit. für Physik, 38, 161; 1926.
Kauffmann, "Beziehungen zwischen physikaliachen Eigenschaften and chemischer Konstitution".
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WATERS, W. A Connexion between Fluorescence and Free Neutral Radicals. Nature 128, 905–906 (1931). https://doi.org/10.1038/128905c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/128905c0
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