Bond exciton model of alkenes and diene polymers

The bond exciton model, developed originally for alkane molecules, is applied here to a range of alkene molecules and diene polymers. The necessary empirical parameters are derived by comparison of the theory with the vacuum‐ultraviolet absorption spectra of ethylene and a number of alkyl‐substituted ethylenes, and these values are used to predict the energies, intensities and polarizations of the lower energy allowed valence transitions of fine diene polymers. Despite its simplicity the bond exciton model is found to give results in quite reasonable agreement with the available experimental data, and suggests that considerable excitation energy transfer may occur along the main chains of certain diene polymers.