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References and Links

Literature References

  • Cotton F. A. Chemical Applications of Group Theory; 3rd ed; Wiley: New York, 1990.
  • Kettle, S. F. A. Symmetry and Structure: Readable Group Theory for Chemists, 3rd ed.; John Wiley and Sons, 2007.
  • Miessler, G. L; Tarr, D. A. Inorganic Chemistry, 3rd ed., Prentice Hall:Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2003.
  • Bernal, I.; Hamilton, W. C.; Ricci, J. S. Symmetry: A Stereoscopic Guide for Chemists, W. H. Freeman: San Francisco, CA, 1977.
  • Pidcock, E.; Motherwell, W. D. S.; Cole, J. C. Acta Cryst., 2003, B59, 634-640. (CSDSymmetry - freely available from the CCDC)

Jmol and Visualization Resources

  • Jmol - the home page for the Jmol project. Jmol is a free, open source molecule viewer for students, educators, and researchers in chemistry and biochemistry. It is cross-platform, running on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux/Unix systems.
  • Jmol Interactive Script Documentation - the definitive resource for up-to-date information on Jmol scripting commands with extensive examples and information about new features.

Symmetry Resources on the Web

  • Molecular Structures of Organic Compounds - Symmetry and Point Groups - Description. Author: Stefan Immel, Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, Last update: 21 October 2008
  • 3DMolSym is an educational program designed to visualize the symmetry elements of molecules and to animate the corresponding symmetry operations in an interactive 3D environment. Requires Shockwave browser plug-in. Authors: Nickolas D. Charistos, Constantinos A. Tsipis, and Michail P. Sigalas, Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki, Greece, see J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82, 1741-1742.
  • Character tables for chemically important point groups - an excellent resource that includes Javascript code to reduce reducible representations to their irreducible representations as well as give information about the symmetry of molecular vibrations. Author: Achim Geleßus, Jacobs University Bremen, Germany, Last update: 12 July 2007
  • SymmetryApp© is a JAVA program designed to help students learn about symmetry elements and their operations. Authors: David E. Meyer and Andrew L. Sargent, East Carolina University, USA, see J. Chem. Educ. 2007, 84, 1551.
  • Symmetry & Point Groups - a set of visualizations and quizzes on symmetry and point groups in chemistry. Java and Flash required. Authors: Ali Korkmaz and William S. Harwood, Indiana University, USA, Created: 2004, see J. Sci. Educ. Tech., 2004, 13(2), 243-253 (link)
  • Molecular Symmetry Examples - A short discussion of molecular symmetry with numerous examples and very nice ray-traced images of a wide variety of symmetrical molecules and objects. Author: Víctor Luaña, Universidad de Oviedo, Spain, Last update: 21 July 2005
  • Point Group Symmetry - A very nice collection of information on point group symmetry with numerous molecular examples of various point groups. Also includes 3D objects as point group examples. Interactive molecules require Java. Author: Jonathan Goss, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, Last update: 17 November 2007
  • Molecular Symmetry: An Interactive Guide - An introduction to symmetry elements and operations with examples including various metal complexes. Java required. Uses Jmol. Authors: Marion E. Cass, Carleton College, USA, Henry S. Rzepa, David R. Rzepa, and Charlotte K. Williams, Imperial College, London, UK, see J. Chem. Educ. 2005, 82, 1742.
  • Molecular Symmetry Online - Includes a symmetry tutorial, various example molecules and a symmetry toolkit. Requires Internet Explorer 7, Flash and Java. Authors: Inbal Tuvi-Arad, Dov Garmise, and others, The Open University of Israel
  • Symmetry in Chemistry - Group Theory - A summary of symmetry operations and symmetry elements. Includes a point group determination flow chart. Author: James Tyrrell, Southern Illinois University, USA, Last update: 13 June 2000
  • Molecular Symmetry - An Interactive Tutorial - A rather extensive summary of molecular symmetry including both symmetry elements and operations and point group determination. Exercises and quiz portions require Chime. Author: Steven C. Haefner, Bridgewater State University, USA, Last update: 31 May 1999