Invalidity of Debye theory and calculation of the molecular dipole moment for less polar laser dye solvents

Abstract

The purpose of this report is to calculate the molecular permanent dipole moment of pure less polar toluene and chloroform, which are often used as laser dye solvents and many other applications. The calculations are based on the knowledge of accurate values for the refractive index and its thermal coefficient at a certain wavelength. The results indicate invalidity of Debye theory in determining the molecular permanent dipole moment, and give accurate values for the distortion polarizability. On the other hand, calculations using the Clausius–Mosotti equation lead to values for the dipole moments corrected to about 0.04165 D for toluene and 0.00574 D for chloroform. Other important physical quantities such as refractive index, density, optical permittivity, specific and molar polarization as a function of temperature are also calculated.