Abstract
HOUSTON1 has shown that, in the case of absorbing media, the number p of electrons per molecule of solute giving rise to an absorption band with a maximum at the wave-length λm is given by where e and m are the electronic charge and mass respectively, mH the mass of the hydrogen atom, n the refractive index of the solution at λm, km the absorption coefficient at λm, s the concentration in gram-molecules per c.c., and λ' the wave-length at which the absorption index is half the value km. Houston calculated p for some thirty substances, and found values between 0·1 and 1 in eighteen cases ; between 1 and 2·7 in four cases ; and considerably less than unity in the remaining cases.
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References
Houston, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 82, 606 (1909).
Wootton (private communication).
Broda, Goodeve and Lythgoe, J. Physiol., 98, 397 (1940).
Hecht and Pickels, Proc. U.S. Nat. Acad. Sci., 24, 172 (1938).
Dartnall, Goodeve and Lythgoe, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 156, 158 (1936); 164, 216 (1938).
Broda and Goodeve, Proc. Roy. Soc., A, 179, 151 (1941).
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WEALE, R. Absorption Spectra, Molecular Weights, and Visual Purple. Nature 163, 916–917 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163916b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163916b0
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