Abstract: Hydrogen-like orbitals represent a crucial topic in the education of structural chemistry; however, existing textbooks usually present simplified schematic diagrams of their images. This paper employs MATLAB codes to systematically generate visualizations of the wave functions of hydrogen-like orbitals, including detailed isosurfaces of their angular components, followed by an in-depth analysis. By comparing these visualized images, we clarify several common misconceptions encountered in teaching and highlight errors found in widely used software, such as Orbital Viewer. The findings of this study provide valuable resources for visual teaching and offer significant insights to enhance students’ understanding of the characteristics of hydrogen-like orbitals.

Key words: MATLAB, Visualization teaching, Hydrogen-like orbitals, Isosurfaces