Research Guides: Chemistry 303: Chemical Properties

Physical Properties

The Chem 303 lab assignment highlights two sources for locating chemical property information.

MilliporeSigma Catalog (formerly the Sigma-Aldrich Catalog)
MilliporeSigma sells organic compounds and general laboratory reagents. Their online catalog contains basic physical property and safety information.

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics This link opens in a new window
Reference data related to chemistry, physics, astronomy, mathematics, and other fields of science.

⇒⇒ See the CRC Handbook Physical Constants of Organic Compounds overview for abbreviations.

Additional sources for chemical property data include:

ChemSpider
ChemSpider is "a free chemical structure database providing fast text and structure search access to over 34 million structures from hundreds of data sources." Maintained by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
PubChem
PubChem provides information on the chemical structures and biological activities of small molecules. Maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) of the National Library of Medicine.

SciFinder-n (New platform) (UNM Only / Restrictions Apply) This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive source for chemical information on the upgraded SciFinder-n platform. Locate journal articles, dissertations, patents, synthesis plans, spectra, and more. Can search by structure or physical property.
Account required. Note: See the SciFinder Guide or contact Holly Surbaugh for details. Coverage 1907-present.
Account required. Note: See the SciFinder Guide or contact Holly Surbaugh for details.
Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology This link opens in a new window
Brief articles on chemical substances - including their properties, manufacturing, and uses - as well as industrial processes and unit operations in chemical engineering and related subjects. Coverage: 2012-2015

ThermoDex
Looking for more specialized chemical and physical data? ThermoDex indexes a wide variety of sources for finding physical property data, including both print and online sources. For help accessing resources at UNM, please contact your librarian.

Looking up Chemicals

When looking up chemicals in an alphabetic list, ignore any numbers or letters that determine location, such as 2,3-, o-, Z-, or iso-. Only when you find the main compound and have to distinguish between isomers do you use these.

Then, take the pieces of the chemical name and run them altogether as one word, so 1-bromo-4-nitrobenzene becomes bromonitrobenzene. When you get to the bromonitrobenzenes, then find the 1,4- among the other isomers.