Molecular architectures, nanometric voids and computer graphics

The revolution caused by the quantum mechanics in the early years of the last century, gave to the chemists the proper conceptual tools to understand, at atomic level, the structure of simple molecules and of complex enzymes. The enormous development of the diffractometer techniques and of the visualization/simulation of the molecular world by powerful computers has allowed to study and understand how chemical forces are responsible of the formation of extraordinary molecular and crystalline structures whose features span from the coding for genetic information through the building up of nanometric channels to selectively drive ions in and out the living cells or to achieve controlled reactions in zeolitic materials. The interpretation and the study of molecular architectures is nowadays carried out by means of a virtual microscope, i.e. a computer and a sophisticated software which allows to virtualize nanometric details with an unprecedent level of control. In this contribution the control that chemical forces can exert at the nanometric level will be highlighted by analyzing the case of water ice, the aquaporine channel mechanism, the diffusion of molecules in the nanocavities of zeolites and in hybrid crystalline materials. The presentation will also stress how the comprehension of the above cases at the molecular level is made possible by the use of modern computer graphics software. Many of the aspects discussed here can be expanded by the students by accessing to the structural and bibliographic information through internet and proper computer graphics software.