Orientational correlations in liquid carbon monoxide and nitric oxide

Abstract

Neutron diffraction results obtained for liquid CO and NO have been modelled by means ofthe reverse Monte Carlo method. Partial pair correlation functions, centre–centre paircorrelation functions and the relative orientations of molecular axes as a function ofdistances between molecular centres have been calculated from the models. It was foundthat, contrary to earlier suggestions, well defined orientational correlations exist in liquidcarbon monoxide, even at lower densities. For liquid nitric oxide, the existence of(NO)2 dimers has been confirmed, but the ‘cis-planar’ structure of the dimers, suggested earlier,could not be made consistent with available diffraction data.