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    Do-It-Yourself: 3D Models of Hydrogenic Orbitals through 3D Printing
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    Department of Chemistry, High Point University, One University Parkway, High Point, North Carolina 27268, United States
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    Journal of Chemical Education

    Cite this: J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93, 9, 1586–1590
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    https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00293
    Published July 7, 2016
    Copyright © 2016 The American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
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    Abstract

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    Introductory chemistry students often have difficulty visualizing the 3-dimensional shapes of the hydrogenic electron orbitals without the aid of physical 3D models. Unfortunately, commercially available models can be quite expensive. 3D printing offers a solution for producing models of hydrogenic orbitals. 3D printing technology is widely available, and the cost of 3D printing “inks” is relatively low. Creation of models requires graphing electron orbital probability distributions in spherical coordinates and exporting as stereolithography (.stl) files (a common format for 3D printing). There is both freeware (CalcPlot3D), and license-requiring (Matlab, Mathematica, Maple) software capable of plotting orbital equations and exporting in the required format. The process of creating the orbitals is relatively simple, and the 3D printing methodology is cost-effective.

    Copyright © 2016 The American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.

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    Journal of Chemical Education

    Cite this: J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93, 9, 1586–1590
    Click to copy citationCitation copied!
    https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b00293
    Published July 7, 2016
    Copyright © 2016 The American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
    Request reuse permissions

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