How these figures were prepared

The IR Spectra

The IR Spectra were aquired with a Perkin Elmer 1600 FT-IR (4 cm-1 resolution) using a 10.0 cm gas cell. The cell was evacuated using a mechanical pump. CO2, H2O, and CH4 were cryogenically trapped in the vacuum line using liquid nitrogen (-200 oC). After the system was evacuated the frozen analyte was thawed and equilibrated with the gas cell. The partial pressure for each analyte was as follows: CO2, 4.0 kPa (30 torr); H2O, 1.6 kPa (12 torr); CH4, 4.0 kPa (30 torr). The HCl was added to the cell by evacuating the cell and then filling it with air above an open bottle of concentrated HCl. As a result the signal intensity is low and several other peaks are observed in the spectrum. 256 scans were aquired for each sample.

After the spectra were aquired they were downloaded to a PC as JCAMP files. The JCAMP files (*.jdx) are available and may be viewed with JCAMP-DX. A screen shot of the spectrum was taken and saved as a GIF file using WinGif. Finally text was added to the GIF file using LView.

The Animations

Animations were prepared using Re_view and a combination of freely distributed software downloaded from SoftShell.
  1. Vibrational data from MOPAC PM3 calculations were used for the animations. These were either provided as demo files with Re_view or were calculated using MOPAC version 6.0.

  2. The vibrations were viewed using Re_view. After rotating to obtain the best view of the vibrational mode, Re_view saved a series of animation coordinates.

  3. PovRay was used to create three-dimensional images from these coordinates by ray tracing. This produces a very high quality image with very good perspective. The image for each frame was saved as a Targa graphics file.

  4. Dave's Targa Animator (TDA) was used to combine the individual frames into an Autodesk Animator .FLI (*.flc) video file.

This page is maintained by
Scott Van Bramer
Department of Chemistry
Widener University
Chester, PA 19013

Please send any comments, corrections, or suggestions to svanbram@science.widener.edu.

This page has been accessed times since 1/5 /96 .
Last Updated 1/5/96