3D Molecule Viewer
How to use the 3D molecule viewer
- Choose a molecule. Atoms are coloured by element (white hydrogen, black carbon, red oxygen, blue nitrogen, green chlorine, purple sodium) and sticks show the bonds.
- Switch to space filling to see how much room each atom actually takes up, and turn off Spin to turn it by hand.
- The molar mass is added up from the atoms; the Molar Mass Calculator does the same for any formula.
Frequently asked questions
Why is water bent and carbon dioxide straight?
Oxygen in water has two bonding pairs and two lone pairs of electrons, which repel each other into a tetrahedral arrangement, leaving the H–O–H angle at 104.5°. The carbon in CO₂ has two double bonds and no lone pairs, so they sit as far apart as possible, at 180°.
Are the positions accurate?
The bond lengths and angles are the experimental values for each molecule (O–H 0.96 Å, C–H 1.09 Å, C=O 1.16 Å and so on). Space-filling radii are van der Waals radii. The models are static: real molecules vibrate and, for ethanol and acetic acid, rotate about their single bonds.
Why is sodium chloride shown as a lattice?
NaCl has no molecules. Sodium and chloride ions pack into a repeating cubic lattice in which every ion touches six of the other kind, and the formula NaCl only gives the ratio. The viewer shows a 3 × 3 × 3 piece of it; a grain of salt continues the pattern for 10¹⁸ ions.
It says WebGL is turned off.
The 3D view needs WebGL, which every current browser has. It can be switched off by hardware acceleration being disabled in the browser settings, or by a very old graphics driver. Turn hardware acceleration on, or try another browser.
Is anything uploaded?
No. The simulation is drawn by your own browser with WebGL; nothing is sent anywhere, and it keeps working offline once the page has loaded.