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  Home > JCE Print > Journal of Chemical Education > Issues > 2005  > November  >
Information • Textbooks • Media • Resources
The Use of the Free, Open-Source Program Jmol To Generate an Interactive Web Site To Teach Molecular Symmetry
Marion E. Cass
Department of Chemistry, Carleton College, Northfield, MN 55057

Henry S. Rzepa, David R. Rzepa, and Charlotte K. Williams
Department of Chemistry, Imperial College London, Kensington Campus, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom

Cover
November 2005
Vol. 82 No. 11
p. 1736
Abstract
Illustrating and manipulating molecules in three dimensions are some of the truly wonderful advantages that computer technologies offer to chemistry teachers. In the following article we discuss our use of the program Jmol for the presentation of interactive materials to teach molecular symmetry. Jmol is an open-source code program that is free to all users and thus ideally suited for the development of teaching materials. Three primary pedagogic goals have been at the forefront in the development of our site. Our first goal was to animate symmetry operations and include interactive tools. Our second goal was to provide a library of molecules for student exercises to supplement their study of symmetry, using generic HTML templates populated using automatic tools based on Javascript. Our third goal in the development of our site was to include International Chemical Identifiers (InChIs) for each molecule to introduce students and educators to a new mechanism for identifying molecular resources and enabling their discovery using the Web search engines.
Supplement
An xyz file for the 260 cm–1 vibrational mode for trans-Co(NH3)4Cl2, an xyz file edited to produce an animated inversion for trans-Co(NH3)4Cl2, and a mol file and cml file for trans-Co(NH3)4Cl2 will soon be available.
More Information
*  Citation
 Cass, Marion E.; Rzepa, Henry S. J. Chem. Educ. 2005 82 1736.
*  Keywords
 First-Year Undergraduate / General; Group Theory / Symmetry; Inorganic Chemistry; Internet / Web-Based Learning; Molecular Properties / Structure; Physical Chemistry; Second-Year Undergraduate; Upper-Division Undergraduate
*  History
 Created:
Last Updated:		 9/22/2005
10/3/2005
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