General Chemistry

Reference Guide: General Chemistry Selected Starting Points, Davidson Library, UCSB

Other Chemistry Reference Guides: Analytical Chemistry Biochemistry General Chemistry Inorganic Chemistry Organic Chemistry Physical Chemistry

Units of Measure, Physical Constants, Laws | Basic Physical Property Sources
Intermediate Physical Property Sources | Toxic Properties of Chemicals | Spectra Collections

Units of Measure, Physical Constants, Physical Laws

For Good Measure: A Complete Compendium of Intenational Weights and Measures (Ref QC 88 .J6)
Provides extensive conversion factors for metric to and from other units, and includes an entertaining assortment of obscure and obsolete units.

Conversion Tables of Units for Science & Engineering (Ref QC 94 .H67 1986)
Conversion factors for a wide range of useful units, arranged in tabular form.

Handbook of Physical Calculations, 2nd ed. (Ref QC 61 .T85 1983)
Mainly oriented toward physical and engineering calculations, this work also has extensive tables of units and physical constants.

NIST Reference on Constants, Units and Uncertainty (http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/index.html)
This National Institute of Standards and Technology has a searchable and browsable list of the important physical constants with bibliography, as well as a thorough description of the SI system of units and a description of methods of expressing degree of uncertainty in measurements. An excellent reference site.

The Laws List (http://www.alcyone.com/max/physics/laws/index.html)
This collection of laws, rules and constants in physics, compiled by Erik Max Francis, includes a number of interest in physical chemistry, e.g. the gas laws, Rydberg formula, etc.

Basic Physical Property Sources

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
(SEL Desk QD 65 .H3)

• Familiar source; published annually but usually changes little from one year to the next.
• Variety of useful physical and chemical data, with some references. Tables are grouped in broad subject sections. Arrangement within tables varies.
• Most frequently used for tables of organic compounds and inorganic compounds, which contain data on melting points, boiling points, density and solubility among others.
• Note that both tables have synonym indexes following the table.
• Not very systematic in choice of data, and indexing can be inconsistent.
• Available to UCSB users on the Web as part of CHEMnetBASE at http://www.chemnetbase.com/.

Merck Index
(SEL Desk RS 356 .M4)

• Published by Merck Pharmaceuticals, with data primarily on organics, strongest on drugs (surprise!).
• Includes physical data, preparation references, toxicity and uses.
• Arranged alphabetically by chemical name; well-indexed; updated irregularly.
• Available to UCSB users on the Web at https://themerckindex.cambridgesoft.com.

Aldrich Catalog
(SEL Desk TP 202 .A48, also uncataloged copies)

• More than just a catalog...
• Includes basic physical data, cross-references to Beilstein, Merck and Fieser, and safety information.
• Arranged alphabetically, with indexes by molecular formula and CAS Registry Number.
• It's available on the Web as part of the Sigma-Aldrich website (http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/). The Web version includes links to Aldrich's FT IR and FT NMR spectra, as well as Materials Safety Data Sheets for most compounds. Check InfoSurf Chemistry: Chemical Suppliers at http://www.library.ucsb.edu/subjects/chem/chemist4.html#chemicals for other companies online catalogs.

ChemFinder WebServer
http://chemfinder.cambridgesoft.com/

• This database, provided by CambridgeSoft, provides basic physical data and structure diagrams.
• Free to any user, it does limit the number of searches at any one time.
• It also has links to websites containing other data for a large number of chemical compounds.
• It is searchable by name, molecular weight, molecular formula, CAS Registry Number.

Intermediate Level Physical Property Sources

• Commonly referred to as "Kirk-Othmer" after its early editors.
• Wide-ranging, authoritative encyclopedia of chemical and process information.
• Web version corresponds to the 4th edition but with some articles updated annually; 3rd and earlier editions still useful for some classic topics.
• Very strong on industrially important chemicals.
• Good subject indexing, cross-references and bibliographies.

CHEMnetBASE
http://www.chemnetbase.com/

• Besides the CRC Handbook (see above), CHEMnetBASE includes the contents of the Dictionary of... sets and the Handbook of Physical Properties of Organic Compounds listed below. They are searchable by name, formula or property data, and (with the proper plugin) by substructure.

Organic
CRC Handbook of Data on Organic Compounds (HODOC)
(Ref QD 257.7 .H36)

• Multi-volume set gives structures, basic physical properties of organic compounds.
• Includes references to find compounds in Beilstein and to Sadtler spectra collections.
• Alphabetical order. Indexes for synonyms, formulas, spectral peaks, CAS Registry #'s. Now in 3rd edition.

Handbook of Physical Properties of Organic Compounds
(Ref QD 257.7 .H374 1997)

• Single volume, gives structure and data important to environmental fate of compounds (mp, bp, water solubility, octanol-water partition coefficient, vapor pressure, pKa, Henry's Law constant, and atmospheric hydroxyl radical reaction rate constant), and references.
• Arranged by CAS Registry Number, with name and molecular formula indexes.

Dictionary of Organic Compounds, 6th ed. (Ref QD 251 .D5 1996)

• Gives structure diagrams, basic physical data (on both the compound and significant derivatives), and references for other information.
• Alphabetical arrangement; students will probably have to use name index. Also has index of molecular formulas and CAS Registry #'s.
• Related sets for more specific areas include:
  • Dictionary of Natural Products Ref QD 415 .A25 D53 1994
  • Dictionary of Organometallic Compounds, 2nd ed. Ref QD 411 .D53 1995
  • Dictionary of Organophosphorus Compounds Ref QD 412 .P1 E36 1988
  • Dictionary of Antibiotics Ref RS 431 .A6 D53 1988
  • Dictionary of Drugs Ref RS 51 .D479 1990
  • Dictionary of Analytical Reagents Ref QD 77 .D498 1993

Inorganic
Dictionary of Inorganic Compounds
(Ref QD 148 .D53 1992)

• Gives structure diagrams, basic physical data (on both the compound and significant derivatives), and references for other information.
• Arranged by molecular formula, with elements in alphabetical order. So table salt is ClNa; calcium sulfate is CaO₄S.
• For organometallic compounds, see Dictionary of Organometallic Compounds, 2nd ed. above.

Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry
(Ref QD 148 .E53 1994)

• Recent; mixture of short "definition" articles with longer review articles by noted authors with good bibliographies.
• Covers inorganic, bioinorganic, organo-metallic and coordination chemistry
• Alphabetical organization, with thematic list in the foreword, subject index and list of contributors.
• To find physical property data, look under the main element in the compound, then browse the appropriate (inorganic or organometallic) article.

Toxic Properties of Chemicals

• The SEL Reference Area has lots of information on toxic properties of chemicals beyond what's found in the Merck Index.
• However, toxicology sources are scattered among several call number ranges:
  • RA 1193-1270
  • SB 951-952.5
  • T 55.5
  • TD 176,4 and TD 196
• Some noteworthy sources are:

• Excellent collection of info, especially LD50 and related data
• Some information, especially references, are heavily abbreviated. Consult the guide in Vol. 1 to interpret the notations.
• Alphabetical by substance. Good synonym index, CAS Registry Number index.

• Good recent source with effects on humans
• Lists of useful publications, organizations

• Contains over 40,000 pages of toxicological information on over 150 compounds.
• Each profile includes an examination, summary, and interpretation of available toxicological and epidemiological data evaluations on the hazardous substance.
• The tables are browsable by table of contents, or keyword searchable, either individually or combined.

Spectra Collections

• UCSB Library has a variety of collections of spectra, some one volume, some multivolume, including IR, NMR, UV, powder diffraction, etc..
• Most are located at either QC 435-765 or QD 95-96.
• Some have general coverage, some deal with specific classes of compounds.
• Many are arranged by class of compounds, some have random order. Most will require use of the name or molecular formula indexes to locate specific compounds.
• The most commonly requested types of spectra are infrared spectra, NMR spectra, and mass spectra.
• The main spectra collections available in the UCSB Library are:

Multi-Spectral Collection

Sigma-Aldrich Online Catalog
Contains thousands of FT IR and FT NMR spectra for compounds in the catalog. Searchable by chemical name, formula, CAS Registry Number.

Infrared

NMR

Mass Spectra

Sadtler Spectra Series

• When all else fails, this is the biggest collection of spectra we have.
• Looseleaf collections of spectra, arranged in order of publication.
• UCSB has the UV, proton NMR, and grating IR collections, plus the "Monomers and Polymers" commercial collection.
• All three main sets share common indexes for chemical names, chemical classes and molecular formulas.
• Each index is in two parts: up to 1980 and 1981 to present.
• Special indexes:
  • IR: Index by wave number of highest peak
  • UV: By wavelength of highest absorption
  • NMR: Molecular weight index
• Sadtler uses their own system of nomenclature, which is not internally consistent:
  • Methylferrocene = "Ferrocene, methyl"
  • Ferrocene = "Iron, dicyclopentadienyl"
• Their computerized alphabetization of the chemical index can be confusing as well.
• Suggestion: Check the formula index first, unless very sure of the name, because it is usually easier to look at a list of possible compound names and decide which one(s) might be your desired compound, than it is to look at your compound and figure out which of a host of possible names Sadtler might have used for it.
• Formula Index arranges molecular formulas according to:
  • C, H, Br, Cl, F, I, N, O, P, S, Si, M (where M stands for any other elements)
  • Compounds are listed in order of the number of carbons, then the number of hydrogens, etc., right to left, except for M elements.

Spectroscopic Identification Tools