Vibration Spectra and Force Constants of ‘Heavy’ Acetylene

Abstract

Recently several workers^1,2,3,4 have published short accounts of observations on the infra-red and Banian spectra of the heavy types of acetylene, namely, HCCD and DCCD. These observations are of considerable importance in helping one to arrive at a more complete understanding of the exact nature of the potential function which defines the force field within the acetylene molecule. Although the observations are not yet sufficiently extensive to enable one to solve this problem completely, it seems desirable at this stage to point out what appear to be serious errors in the present interpretations of these observations, and to show that most of the present data can be satisfactorily correlated on the basis of two quite simple assumptions.