Molecular Modeling Kit to accompany Organic Chemistry, 7e
Manufactured by Darling Model Kits, this custom kit was designed by T.W.Graham Solomons. The kit consists of Darling's basic Molecular Vision kit with a few additional pieces, so that p orbitals could be shown in molecules like acetylene. This customized kit also has pieces that allow linear geometry for the sigma bonds of alkynes while also having orthogonal connections at each atom for the associated p orbitals. By attaching balls of the right colors it is possible to show the lobes of the p orbitals that make up the pi bonds in an alkyne. Ball colors can be matched symmetrically to show in-phase orbital overlap, or antisymmetrically to show an antibonding state. Use of colored balls with the appropriate framework geometry is a very nice feature of the Darling model set. Pieces from Darling's inorganic model set and are used for octahedral geometry.
T.W. Graham Solomons did his undergraduate work at The Citadel and received his doctorate in organic chemistry in 1959 from Duke University where he worked with C.K. Bradsher. Following this he was a Sloan Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Rachester where he worked with V. Boekelheide. in 1960 he became a charter member of the faculty of the University of South Florida and became Professor of Chemistry in 1973. In 1992 he was made Professor Emeritus. His research interests have been in areas of heterocyclic chemistry and unusual aromatic compounds. He has published papers in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, the Journal of Organic Chemistry, and the Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry. He has received several awards for distinguished teaching.