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It has been shown by the deflection of beams of alkaline-earth dihalide molecules by inhomogeneous electric fields that the following compounds have permanent electric dipole moments and are therefore assumed bent: BaF2, BaCl2, BaBr2, BaI2, SrF2, SrCl2, CaF2. No polarity was observed for the following compounds investigated: CaCl2, CaBr2, SrBr2, SrI2. The absence of deflection of beams of BaCl2 by inhomogeneous magnetic fields shows that this molecule has no electronic magnetic moment and hence is in a singlet ground state.
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Wharton et al. (1963) studied this question.
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