Beginning chemistry students often have difficulty visualizing the 3-dimensional shapes of electron orbitals without the aid of 3D models. Unfortunately, commercially available models can be quite expensive. 3D printing offers a solution for producing models of atomic 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). The free web-based applet, CalcPlot3D<sup>1</sup>, is capable of both graphing and exporting the required electron orbital geometry, and 3D printing is possible with minimal modifications for structural stability. In addition, 3D printing of atomic orbitals and hybrid orbitals can be used as a physical chemistry assignment to teach upper-level students the important aspects of electron orbital shape functions, while also producing models capable of being used in introductory chemistry courses.

Hands-on 3D printed models of atomic and hybrid orbitals

255th National Meeting (2018)

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