Virtual reality tools for advanced modeling

Abstract

Chemistry is a visual discipline deeply relying on graphical representations for bringing the structure and behaviour of the microscopic world at the reach of our senses. Recent advances in computer graphics and the advent of immersive-virtual-reality technologies are creating great new opportunities in the way of conceiving these graphical representations and interacting with them. To seize these opportunities we have developed a virtual laboratory casting researchers amid the electron clouds of molecular systems and allowing them to perform a quantitative analysis of chemical bonding in an interactive and cooperative way. We discuss the developed machinery and illustrate an example of bond analysis on group 11 cyanides M–CN (M = Cu, Ag, Au).Chemistry is a visual discipline deeply relying on graphical representations for bringing the structure and behaviour of the microscopic world at the reach of our senses. Recent advances in computer graphics and the advent of immersive-virtual-reality technologies are creating great new opportunities in the way of conceiving these graphical representations and interacting with them. To seize these opportunities we have developed a virtual laboratory casting researchers amid the electron clouds of molecular systems and allowing them to perform a quantitative analysis of chemical bonding in an interactive and cooperative way. We discuss the developed machinery and illustrate an example of bond analysis on group 11 cyanides M–CN (M = Cu, Ag, Au).