The Stability of Gaseous Diatomic Oxides

The instabilities of FeO, NiO, MnO, and SiO2 upon vaporization, and upper limits to the heats of dissociation of these oxides and SiO have been determined by effusion experiments. The data available in the literature have been treated to obtain the heats of dissociation, or the upper limits thereof, of the gaseous oxides SnO, ZnO, CdO, CuO, PbO, GeO, and TiO. The linear Birge-Sponer extrapolation of vibrational levels appears to give correct dissociation energies for the fourth-group oxides.