Infrared intensities of the fundamental vibrations of liquid H2O

Infrared absorption intensities of the fundamental vibrations of liquid H₂O have been obtained by measuring transmissions at two sample thicknesses (about 9 and 0.9 μ). The effect of multiple internal reflections on the observed absorptions is examined in terms of thin-film optics. It is shown that this simple method yields precise absorption intensities, without corrections for the effects of multiple internal reflections. The resulting intensities are 89.9 × 10³ cm/mmol and 5.91 × 10³ cm/mmol for the stretching and bending vibrations, respectively. The latter value was estimated after eliminating the absorption of intermolecular vibrations from the 1400–2400 cm^-1 region by means of computer simulation.