Rotational and vibrational temperatures measured in a chemiluminescent flame from FTIR Bi2 emission spectra

Rotational and vibrational temperatures of the Bi₂ dimer have been measured in a chemiluminescent flame. Emission spectra of the Bi₂ a³Σ_u⁺(a₁1_u)→X¹Σ_g⁺(X0_g⁺) transition in the near-infrared region were recorded with a FTIR spectrometer. High-resolution spectra of the 0-3, 0-8, 0-9, 2-3, 4-1, 6-0, 6-1, and 7-1 bands served for the determination of the rotational temperature. It was observed that both rotational and vibrational levels are described well by Boltzmann distributions. The average rotational temperature was found to be consistent with the vibrational temperature . The study has shown that such a very heavy molecule as Bi₂ can serve for temperature measurements by optical emission as reported so far only for light molecules.