Abstract
THE experiments of Franck and his collaborators1 on the absorption spectra of alkali and silver halides made it desirable to extend such investigations to more complex inorganic molecules. Nitrates appear to be highly suitable for this purpose, since they invariably liberate NO2 as a product of decomposition on heating, which can be easily recognised by its two characteristic sets of bands. Furthermore, the nitrate ion exhibits selective absorption with a sharp maximum at about 300–290 m, as shown by alkali nitrates in solution and by solutions of dilute aqueous nitric acid. On the other hand, in nitric acid in the vapour state and in hexane solutions, and also in ethyl nitrate in the vapour state, this maximum disappears and is replaced by a very diffuse and flat one between about2 270 m and 260 m. This evidently gives a simple criterion for the existence of electrovalent and covalent forms.
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Z. Phys., 43, 155 (1927); 56, 548 (1929); 69, 724 (1931), etc.
Cf., for example, V. Halban and Eisenbrand, Z. phys. Chem. 132, 433 (1928). J. W. Goodeve, Trans. Farad. Soc., 30, 504 (1934).
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HAQ, M., SAMUEL, R. Absorption Spectra of Nitrates in the Vapour State. Nature 137, 496 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137496a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137496a0
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