Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Water molecules and funky stuff

i found some cool imagery of molecules we have some concept of. this is a refreshing new colorful way to visualize these concepts of chemistry."For the images below, variation in electrostatic potential or electron density are shown using different colors. Positive electrostatic potential is shown as shades of blue and negative electrostatic potential as reds. High electron density is also shown as shades of blue, and low (approx. zero) electron density as reds" (PC Alan Shusterman).

How do you "see" the electrons in HF, which has a predominantly covalent bond? We usually think of covalent bonds as those in which electrons are shared between two atoms. Click here to see a Spartan-produced mapping of the HF bond. It is very interesting to see the slight variations in electron density between images.

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