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reaction clips
High-quality visualisation of chemical reactions
A joint project of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the University of Vienna
Background
Teaching Organic Chemistry or Medicinal Chemistry requires a lot imagination by students in order to fully understand what actually happens during a chemical reaction. The usual ways of 2-dimensional depiction is fine for quickly capturing the reaction type and the nature of reactants and products. However, a better understanding of mechanistic aspects would definitely benefit from a good animated visualisation of the entire reaction process. For this purpose, various cartoon-like animations have been utilised in chemical education in the past, but these approaches usually represent (more or less coarse) approximations and abstractions of reality. In the present project, we aim at a novel way of high-quality visualisation of a selected set of chemical reactions in combination with a highly accurate description of these reactions by state-of-the-art quantum chemistry calculations. The results are available in different formats:
a) high-definition video clips for lecture-hall projection
b) interactive 3D Flash animations for incorporation in web pages and for download
Example clips (different video file formats)
clip name |
video file format |
mpg HD |
mpg PAL |
mpg PC |
3g2 mobile |
flv HD |
SN1 reaction |
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SN2 reaction |
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bromination of benzene |
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nitration of benzene |
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sp3 hybridisation of carbon |
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addition of MeLi to acetone |
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Project partners
Visualisation (video, 3D animations):
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University of Applied Arts Vienna
Institute of Technical Chemistry
Prof. Dr. Alfred Vendl
Ing. Stefan Fischer
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Quantum-chemical calculations:
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University of Vienna
Institute of Theoretical Chemistry
Prof. Dr. Peter Wolschann
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Didactic concept, 2D animations:
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University of Vienna
Department of Drug and Natural Product Synthesis
Prof. Dr. Norbert Haider
Prof. Dr. Helmut Spreitzer
Dr. Pavel Dallakian
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Sponsored by
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Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung
Republic of Austria
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