A joint project of the University of Applied Arts Vienna and the University of Vienna
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-artquantum chemistry calculations. The results are available in different formats:
For special didactic purposes, Flash animations are perfectly suited to complement the video clips, e.g. for depiction of
resonance structures
of pi-electron systems.
University of Applied Arts Vienna
Institute of Technical Chemistry
Prof. Dr. Alfred Vendl
Ing. Stefan Fischer
Quantum-chemical calculations:
University of Vienna
Institute of Theoretical Chemistry
Prof. Dr. Peter Wolschann
Didactic concept, 2D animations:
University of Vienna
Department of Drug and Natural Product Synthesis
Prof. Dr. Norbert Haider
Prof. Dr. Helmut Spreitzer
Dr. Pavel Dallakian
Sponsored by
Bundesministerium für Wissenschaft und Forschung
Republic of Austria
Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, composition, reactions, and preparation (by synthesis or by other means) of carbon-based compounds, hydrocarbons, and their derivatives.
Medicinal chemistry or pharmaceutical chemistry is a discipline at the intersection of chemistry, pharmacology, and biology involved with designing, synthesizing and developing pharmaceutical drugs.
A chemical reaction is a process that leads to the transformation of one set of chemical substances to another.
Depiction is meaning conveyed through pictures. Basically, a picture maps an object to a two-dimensional scheme or picture plane.
Visualization is any technique for creating images, diagrams, or animations to communicate a message.
Chemistry education (or chemical education) is a comprehensive term that refers to the study of the teaching and learning of chemistry in all schools, colleges and universities.
An approximation is an inexact representation of something that is still close enough to be useful.
Abstractions may be formed by reducing the information content of a concept or an observable phenomenon, typically to retain only information which is relevant for a particular purpose.
The state of the art is the highest level of development, as of a device, technique, or scientific field, achieved at a particular time.
Quantum chemistry is a branch of theoretical chemistry which applies quantum mechanics and quantum field theory to address problems in chemistry.
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition (SD) video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels (720p) or 1,920×1,080 pixels (1080i/1080p).
A Flash animation or Flash cartoon is an animated film which is created using Adobe Flash or similar animation software and often distributed in the .swf file format.
Ab initio quantum chemistry methods are computational chemistry methods based on quantum chemistry.
The SN1 reaction is a substitution reaction in organic chemistry. "SN" stands for nucleophilic substitution and the "1" represents the fact that the rate-determining step is unimolecular.
The SN2 reaction (also known as bimolecular nucleophilic substitution or as backside attack) is a type of nucleophilic substitution, where a lone pair from a nucleophile attacks an electron deficient electrophilic center and bonds to it, expelling another group called a leaving group. Thus the incoming group replaces the leaving group in one step.
Electrophilic aromatic substitution or EAS is an organic reaction in which an atom, usually hydrogen, appended to an aromatic system is replaced by an electrophile.
In chemistry, resonance or mesomerism is a way of describing delocalized electrons within certain molecules or polyatomic ions where the bonding cannot be expressed by one single Lewis formula. A molecule or ion with such delocalized electrons is represented by several contributing structures (also called resonance structures or canonical forms).
pi bonds result from overlap of atomic orbitals that are in contact through two areas of overlap. pi-bonds are more diffuse bonds than the sigma bonds. Electrons in pi bonds are sometimes referred to as pi electrons.
