In: Chemistry
Using energy level diagrams, predict the relative stability of a Br2 molecule as well as the first excited state.
Bromine (Br), a group VIIA element, is a halogen. Bromine has a melting point of -7 degrees C, a boiling point of 59 degrees C, and forms a diatomic molecule (Br 2) in its elemental molecular state. The bromine ground electronic configuration is 4p 5 neglecting filled sublevels, which is one electron short of filling the p sublevel. This configuration results in spinorbit split term symbols Br(2P3/2) and Br(2 p 1/2), with Br(2P3/2) having the lower energy following Hund's energy ordering rules. 'This separation inspin-orbit split states is called the fine structure, and the Br(2Pl/2,) electronically excited state is 0.456 electron-volts (eV) or 3685 cm" 1 above the Br(2P13/2) ground state. The various values of total angular momentumincluding nuclear spin, result in six hyperfine energy levels. The hyperfine line spectrum is 0.5 cm-I or 15 GHz wide, consisting of two groups with three spectral lines each. There are two naturally-occurring bromine isotopes of nearly equal abundance (79Br: 0.505, 8 1Br: 0.495). The hyperfine energy separations vary with bromine isotope, but are on the order of 0.35 cm-I for the Br(2 P 1/2) energy level and 0.07 cm-1 for the Br(2P3/2) enlergy level. The bromine fine structure and hyperfine structure energy levels are shown in