In the Classroom The Properties of Oxygen Investigated with Easily Accessible Instrumentation The “One-Photon-Two-Molecule” Mechanism Revisited Manfred Adelhelm, Natasha Aristov, and Achim Habekost* Department of Chemistry, Padagogische Hochschule Ludwigsburg, Reuteallee 46, D-71634 Ludwigsburg, Germany *
[email protected] Oxygen has spectacular and unusual properties (1). Students between the ground state and first excited state of oxygen, but are generally familiar with this gas as making up about 20% of the only if two ground-state molecules are promoted and relaxed to atmosphere, being required for combustion, participating in many two excited-state molecules. This has been nicely presented as an oxidation reactions, and being a colorless gas. The revelation that it exercise in spectral interpretation for the general chemistry is blue as a liquid and paramagnetic is surprising. The observation laboratory in this Journal (11). A key point to understanding that, under other conditions (as the product of a chemical the absorption spectrum was the observation of the same features reaction), oxygen emits red light, provides further amazement. both for gaseous oxygen at high pressures and for large oxygen- Over the years, several methods of demonstrating the paramag- layer thicknesses, on the order of the thickness of the earth's netic and optical properties of oxygen have been published in this atmosphere.1 Inter-molecular interactions, more likely in con- Journal (2-6). Using these demonstrations is an elegant way of densed or high-pressure phases and more likely to be seen in a gas introducing or reinforcing the concepts of molecular orbital (MO) reservoir as huge as the atmosphere, were proposed, and later theory.