This entry presents Capsaicin (C18H27NO3; CAS 404-86-4; PubChem CID 1548943) as a 3D-printable ball-and-stick model in which every atom carries its engraved element symbol (C, H, N, O), so the model can be read without a colour key. Atomic coordinates come from the PubChem-computed 3D conformer (not an experimental crystal structure); coordinates and connectivity are unchanged.

Project scope and purpose

MolGod is an open educational-science project that publishes engraved ball-and-stick models of individual chemical compounds. Models are generated deterministically from public structure data and released under CC BY-SA 4.0 together with their identifiers and provenance.

Standard molecular STL files encode geometry only; atom identity, conventionally conveyed by colour, is lost in single-material additive manufacturing. In these models the element symbol is a recessed engraving on each atomic sphere, so atom identity is part of the mesh and remains readable in any print material, visually and by touch.

The design objective is to shorten the time learners need to identify the atoms of a molecule, so that instruction can concentrate on connectivity, bond order and three-dimensional geometry, and to reduce teacher preparation to scaling and slicing a ready file. This is a design rationale: the effect on learning outcomes has not yet been formally evaluated.

Project rationale, related peer-reviewed research and the validation plan: molgod.org/engraved-molecular-models.

Structure at a glance

• 49 atoms: 18 C, 27 H, 1 N, 3 O

• 49 bonds: 41 single, 2 double, 6 aromatic

• One aromatic 6-membered ring

• Functional groups: one amide group (-CO-N<), one phenolic hydroxyl group (Ar-OH), one ether linkage (C-O-C) and one carbon-carbon double bond (C=C)

• Two hydrogen-bond donors and three acceptors (computed)

• Fraction of sp3-hybridised (tetrahedral) carbon atoms: 0.5 (computed)

Use in teaching

• Counting task: students tally the engraved symbols (18 C, 27 H, 1 N, 3 O; 49 atoms) and rebuild the formula C18H27NO3 from the model alone.

• Aromaticity: identify the aromatic ring and the 6 bonds recorded as aromatic; the model draws them as one Kekulé structure (alternating single and double bonds), while in the real molecule they are delocalised, intermediate between single and double.

• Functional groups: find the amide group (-CO-N<), the phenolic hydroxyl group (Ar-OH), the ether linkage (C-O-C) and the carbon-carbon double bond (C=C) on the model and name each one.

File and printing

STL mesh of 573,664 triangles, a closed (watertight) single solid. Coordinates are in ångström and STL stores no unit, so scale the model deliberately in your slicer. Measured bounding box: 8.721 × 9.314 × 8.541 Å; at scale factor 10 (1 Å to 10 mm, file read in millimetres) the print measures about 87.2 × 93.1 × 85.4 mm. SHA-256: 12b448eab621ca80c15ce2ee283878b14c1bc35db292bc4b2b89e296e81af574.

Validation

• InChIKey identical to the PubChem record (PubChem FTP SDF, file dated 2026-10-08), including the stereo layer: YKPUWZUDDOIDPM-SOFGYWHQSA-N

• Molecular formula and hydrogen-bond donor/acceptor counts identical to PubChem

• Mesh: triangle count in the header equals the actual count; 0 edges not shared by exactly two triangles; 1 connected solid; SHA-256 equal to the published file

Source, licence and identifiers

Full record: molgod.org/molecule/404-86-4 · Licence and provenance record: molgod.org/licenses/stl/404-86-4 · Same file on Wikimedia Commons: File:Capsaicin-3D-molecular-model-engraved-CAS-404-86-4.stl

• MolGod ID: MG_632-737-220-62

• Wikidata: Q273169

• EC number: 206-969-8

• ChemSpider ID: 1265957

• IUPAC name: (E)-N-[(4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenyl)methyl]-8-methylnon-6-enamide

• InChIKey: YKPUWZUDDOIDPM-SOFGYWHQSA-N

• SMILES: CC(C)/C=C/CCCCC(=O)NCC1=CC(=C(C=C1)O)OC

• Molar mass 305.4 g/mol (exact mass 305.19909372)

Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0 (licence text). Required attribution: "Capsaicin 3D model by MolGod.org — https://molgod.org/molecule/404-86-4/ — CC BY-SA 4.0".