Aspirin Pills and Crystal Structure (IMAGE)
Caption
(a) Aspirin pills. (b) Crystal structure of aspirin representing a regular, spatially periodic arrangement of molecules. (c) The animation illustrates the redistribution of electron density during the rotation of the methyl group with a period of approximately 1 ps. A single aspirin molecule is shown in a ball and stick model, the electron density as a so-called isosurface. The isosurface contains all spatial positions at which the electron density has a particular (fixed) value of 1800 elementary charges per nanometer (1800 e-/nm3). Changes of electron density result in changes of the shape of the isosurface. A shrinking around a particular atom illustrates a loss of electronic charge while an expansion reflects an increase of charge density. In the aspirin molecule, continuous periodic charge motions occur during the methyl rotation, in particular between the atoms of the carbon 6-ring (left) and the COOH carboxy unit (right).
Credit
MBI Berlin
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