Molecular model - Alanine - Atomic scale model

thingiverse

Just a nice water-tight, manifold, 3D-friendly STL molecular model of Alanine! Check out my profile for more like this. Some I've printed already, while others are waiting to be tried. I do consider molecule requests, but I'm not always in a rush :)\r\n\r\nI use these to teach my kids about chemistry. Alanine is useful because it's part of many proteins and can be compared to Glucose and Carbohydrates (like Lactose, see my other models) to show that they're different and why one needs to eat various types of food to get all the necessary body parts.\r\n\r\nFor FDM printing, these will require a lot of supports and careful planning. I'm looking forward to seeing some SLM versions, which should be easier to print.\r\n\r\nThe images are from different stages in the modeling process. All molecules undergo computational atomic bond optimization and simulation to get the correct bond angles. The atomic "ball" is scaled proportionally with atomic radius, although the actual radius shown is still just for modeling purposes and ease of representation. The models should have enough triangles for very large-scale fabrication.