Comment on “Relativistic spinless energies and thermodynamic properties of sodium dimer molecule”

Abstract

In this Comment we point out two incorrect results in a paper published recently in this journal. In the first place, the fact that the maximum number of vibrational energy levels is not a variable parameter of the model because it is determined by the potential-energy function and, in particular, by the dissociation energy. In the second place, we argue that the vibrational thermodynamic functions for an excited electronic state of a diatomic molecule are of no physical utility because any physical application requires the more relevant contribution of the lower electronic states to the canonical partition function. To illustrate this point we show the calculation of the equilibrium constant for the dimerization of sodium using only spectroscopic information about the ground electronic state. The theoretical expression agrees remarkably well with the available experimental data.