Structure of liquid chlorine from neutron-diffraction measurements

Abstract

Neutron-diffraction measurements have been performed on orthobaric liquid chlorine at temperatures T = 202·2 K and 286·6 K. A comparison with previous measurements is made. The intermolecular structure factors and pair correlation functions are reported and discussed in terms of the orientational correlations that strongly influence the structure of liquid chlorine. Comparison is made with molecular-dynamics results obtained by Rodger, Stone and Tildesley employing a new sophisticated potential. Agreement between the present experimental data and the predictions made using this potential is very satisfactory, although some minor changes in the potential are suggested. Finally, we point out the impossibility of explaining the features of g(r) by using only a limited number of configurations such as the T, end-to-end or staggered parallel ones.