Using Papercraft Models to Introduce Sandwich and Piano Stool Compounds to Students

Molecular model kits capable of representing bulky organometallic compounds are often expensive, making it impractical to provide them to all students in a lecture. To address this limitation, the author developed papercraft structural models to illustrate organometallic compounds commonly known as sandwich and piano stool compounds. This study describes the construction of these models and provides an overview of a brief lecture for first-year undergraduate students that incorporate them. The brief lecture was designed to stimulate the interest of students in chemistry through the introduction of molecules with distinctive structures and nicknames while providing a basic understanding of line-angle formulas and wedge-and-dash representations. The papercraft models were developed to visualize representative sandwich and piano stool compounds, including M(C6H6)2, M(C5H5)2, M(C6H6)(C5H5), M(C6H6)(CO)3, and M(C5H5)(CO)3. They were designed to help students visualize the characteristic geometries of these compounds and the diversity of ligand rotational conformations. Results from a postlecture survey indicated that the brief lecture was well received by the participants.