Tuesday, May 6, 2014

thermodynamics - Has any scientist actually seen a $H_2O$ molecule vibrate?


Has any scientist experimentally confirmed that H2O molecules vibrate when heat energy is provided to them?



Maybe by passing X-Rays through them or by some special camera...?



Answer




Has any scientist practically confirmed that H2O molecules vibrate...



Yes, molecular vibration and rotation can be measured using Raman Spectroscopy.



when heat energy is provided to them?



And yes, the population in rotationally/vibrationally excited states depends on the temperature of the molecules.



You can see some nice spectra of this here.


Side note: A really beautiful technique (optical centrifuge) has been developed in recent decades to make molecules spin ridiculously fast (to the point of even breaking them apart), using short laser pulses.


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