Gas phase measurements of the Kerr effect in some n-alkanes and cyclohexane

Gas phase measurements of the molar Kerr constant, mK, of cyclohexane and the n-alkanes from propane through decane have been made over the temperature range 313–461 K and pressure range 0–8 bar. When examined in conjunction with previous light scattering measurements our results lead to the following conclusions: hyperpolarizability contributions to mK are of the same order of magnitude as anisotropy of polarizability contributions; the assumption of the additivity of bond polarizability tensors seems to fail for the higher n-alkanes in the gas phase; values of mK and the depolarization ratio obtained from solution measurements are much less than the gas phase values.