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Updated: May 10, 2025

An Analog Macroscopic Technique for Studying Molecular Hydrodynamic Processes in Dense Gases and Liquids
Published on: December 4, 2017
Beyond the Harmonic Oscillator; Highlights of Selected Studies of Vibrational Potential Energy Functions
Esther J Ocola1,2, Jaan Laane1,2
1Department of Chemistry, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3255, USA.
Abstract:
Although the harmonic oscillator model has found wide use in physics and chemistry, there are more interesting potential energy functions (PEFs) which can tell us a great deal about molecular structure and energetics. In the present work, we show that for selected systems simple one- and two-dimensional potential functions can be used to very accurately fit detailed spectroscopic data and provide extensive additional information. Results for molecular inversion, ring puckering, the anomeric effect, pseudorotation, triplet-state puckering, internal rotation, and π-type hydrogen bonding in ground and excited electronic states are presented.
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