Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T07:27:36.731Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Photo-Electric Threshold and the Heat of Dissociation of the Potassium Molecule

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

R. W. Ditchburn
Affiliation:
Trinity College, Isaac Newton Student

Abstract

The absorption curves and the photo-ionisation experiments agree to give a value for the molecular photo-electric threshold of λ 2555 ± 20 a.u. If our view of the ionisation process is correct, the energy of dissociation is 0·505 ∓ ·01 volts. If the picture of the ionisation process is wrong, the energy of dissociation may be a little lower (a few hundredths of a volt). The corresponding heat of dissociation is 11400 calories. In the range of temperature (200° C. to 500° C.) generally used in experiments on potassium vapour, the fraction associated varies from 10−4 to 10−2. An equation for calculating the fraction associated at any temperature is given by the writer in an earlier paper.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge Philosophical Society 1928

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

* Phil. Mag. Vol. 50, p. 345 (1925).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Zeits. f. Phys. Vol. 44, p. 643 (1927).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Proc. Roy. Soc. Vol. 117, p. 486 (1928).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

§ Loc. cit.Google Scholar

* See Paschen, , Ann. der Phys. Vol. 60, p. 712 (1897).Google Scholar

Phys. Rev. Vol. 22, p. 456 (1923).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

* Franck, . etc., Journal Faraday Soc., 1925Google Scholar, and various papers in Zeits. f. Phys. Vols. 43 and 14Google Scholar. Vide also Terenin, , Zeits. f. Phys., Vol. 44, p. 713 (1927).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

For examples of the use of these diagrams, see Franck, , loc. cit.Google Scholar

* Smith, , Proc. Roy. Soc., Vol. 106, p. 400 (1924).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

* Loc. cit.Google Scholar

Vide Milne, , Phil. Mag., Vol. 47, p. 209 (1924).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Zeits. f. Phys., Vol. 44, p. 26 (1927).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

* Phys. Rev., Vol. 27, p. 37 (1926).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Loc. cit.Google Scholar

* Journ. Amer. Chem. Soc., Vol. 48, p. 2522 (1926).CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Vide p. 645, loc. cit.Google Scholar

* Loc. cit., equation 10, p. 507.Google Scholar