Workshop in Rome (ICCE & ECRICE)

I was invited to give a workshop, An exploration of molecular shape through mathematical beading, in the 22th International Conference on Chemical Education (ICCE) and 11th European Conference on Research in Chemical Education (ECRICE) which will be held in Rome, 15-20 July 2012. Check the website here www.iccecrice2012.org for the detailed schedule.

AN EXPLORATION OF MOLECULAR SHAPE THROUGH MATHEMATICAL BEADING
Chern Chuang, Chia-Chin Tsoo, Bih-Yaw Jin
Department of Chemistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan;
National Center for High-Performance Computing, Hsin-Chu, Taiwan; R.O.C.
E-mail: byjin@ntu.edu.tw

A few years ago, we discovered that beading an old and traditional craft could be applied systematically to construct faithful three-dimensional molecular shapes of fullerenes and various kinds of complicated graphitic materials including Platonic solids, C60, higher fullerenes, carbon nanotubes, nanotori, nanohelices, high-genus fullerenes, singly-, and triply-periodic minimal surfaces.1-3 Unlike the standard molecular physical model, chemical bonds are represented by beads explicitly, while atoms are not shown in a bead model. The hard-sphere repulsion among beads in a bead model effectively mimic the repulsion between different chemical bonds in a molecule. Thus, the molecular shape of fullerenes can be faithfully modelled by beading technique.

In this workshop, we will show participants how to construct systematically molecular models of fullerenes with beads and how to interpret correctly microscopic meaning of these bead models. Particularly, participants will learn simple beading techniques and build bead models of a dodecahedron and a truncated icosahedron, which are C20 and C60 respectively.

1. Chuang, C.; Jin, B.-Y.; Tsoo, C.-C.; Tang, N. Y.-Wa; Cheung, M. P. S.; Cuccia, L. A., J. Chem. Edu 2012 , 89, 414–416.
2. Chuang, C.; Jin, B.-Y.; Tsoo, C.-C., Proceedings of Bridges: Mathematics, Music, Art, Architecture, Culture, 2011, 523-526.
3. The beaded molecules blog: http://thebeadedmolecules.blogspot.com/.