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Back to School – Chemistry in 3D

Teachers and students of chemistry across the Northern hemisphere will be going back to school about now. Chemtube3D contains interactive 3D animations for some of the topics covered during an A level course in the UK and equivalent courses elsewhere.

A key starting point is understanding atomic orbitals. Each page contains some information about the type of orbital with an interactive Jmol window providing a 3D visualisation of their shape. Knowing these shapes you can understand how bonds are formed.

The ever popular explanation of the shapes of molecules based on electron counting (VSEPR) and an introduction to proton NMR showing protons in equivalent environments is available for selected organic molecules.

All the organic mechanism pages feature information about the reaction and an interactive reaction scheme. Explore the range of organic mechanisms for yourself. Click on the scheme and rotate the structures in 3D. So you can explore the characteristics of the reaction and understand how the molecules interact with one another.

Larger structures such as crystal lattices  and polymers  relevant to A level are also available, you will find many more in the Inorganic and Polymer sections.

Finally you can create and explore your own molecules in the Molecular Playground.

We hope that you find these resources useful when you go back to school Chemistry. If you would like a portable app version of some of the site check out the apps for iOS and Android.

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We would also like to hear from you if you have used ChemTube3D and so have added this feedback form. Please share your experiences so we can improve.

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