Concept
Debye
The debye (symbol: D) (dɛˈbaɪ; dəˈbɛiə) is a CGS unit (a non-SI metric unit) of electric dipole moment named in honour of the physicist Peter J. W. Debye. It is defined as e-18 statcoulomb-centimeters. Historically the debye was defined as the dipole moment resulting from two charges of opposite sign but an equal magnitude of 10−10 statcoulomb (generally called e.s.u. (electrostatic unit) in older scientific literature), which were separated by 1 ångström. This gave a convenient unit for molecular dipole moments.
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| = 10−18 cm5/2⋅g1/2⋅s−1 |
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| = 10−10 statC·Å |
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| ≘ 1/299,792,458 C·m |
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| ≈ 3.33564e-30C·m |
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| ≈ 0.3934303e·a0 |
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| ≈ 0.2081943e⋅Å |
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| ≈ 0.02081943e·nm |
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| Typical dipole moments for simple diatomic molecules are in the range of 0 to 11 D. Symmetric homoatomic species, e.g. chlorine, Cl2, have zero dipole moment, and highly ionic molecular species have a very large dipole moment, e.g. gas-phase potassium bromide, KBr, with a dipole moment of 10.41 D. A proton and an electron 1Å apart have a dipole moment of 4.8 D. |
| The debye is still used in atomic physics and chemistry because SI units have until recently been inconveniently large. The smallest SI unit of electric dipole moment is the quectocoulomb-metre, which corresponds to roughly 0.3 D. |
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