LibGuides: Physical & Thermodynamic Properties: Where to Start

Welcome

This guide is intended to help you to locate physical, chemical and thermodynamic properties of various materials, particularly small-molecule organic and inorganic substances, and to understand where these data have been published and in what contexts. The tools and databases can be quite complex, so there's a lot of detail here. As always, be sure to ask if you need help with a specific search.

The Most Important Tools

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
Almost every search for a common chemical property of a small-molecule substance should begin in the CRC. The current web edition contains searchable interactive data tables as well as an internal database of chemical compounds and structures with basic chemical and physical data points. There is also full text in HTML and PDF formats.

DIPPR Physical and Thermodynamic Properties
The Design Institute for Physical Property Data (DIPPR) Project 801 database consists of experimental data and correlations of temperature-dependent properties for over 1,800 pure chemicals, mostly organic. Collected data have been evaluated, correlated, and checked for thermodynamic consistency. From this site, you can view data sets, DIPPR-approved property constants, and regressed correlation coefficients for temperature-dependent properties, as well as calculate temperature-dependent properties in any set of units. Searchable by chemical name, CAS registry number, molecular and structural formulas, and numeric property ranges. (AIChE)
NIST Chemistry WebBook
Reliable thermophysical and spectral data for a few thousand important compounds. Much of the data is derived from prior NIST/NBS publications. Searchable by name, CAS registry number, formula, molecular weight, etc.

Properties of Organic Compounds
Database of >28,000 organic compounds with physical and spectral data. (CRC)
Reaxys
A vast amount of factual data for chemical compounds derived from the historical Beilstein and Gmelin handbooks, and more recently gathered from the journal and patent literature. Reaxys is often superior to SciFinder when you're looking for older literature and experimental property data.
SciFinder
CAS has added an array of property data to substance records in the Registry database. There is a tab for experimental properties, with corresponding references to the source literature for each. An array of calculated (predicted) properties, primarily of pharmaceutical interest, are available for most Registry substances as well. Start in the Explore Substances tab, search for a compound by structure, name/synonym, molecular formula, or CAS Registry number, and then click on the Substance Detail link. You can also search for substances directly using property values, or enter values to refine an existing substance answer set.
Requires users to register with a utexas.edu email account.
Thermophysical Properties of Matter Database (TPMD)
This database covers physical and transport properties of many inorganic, metallic, and composite materials. (CINDAS)

ThermoDex
ThermoDex is a finding aid for more than 300 specialized property handbooks and compilations, searchable by type of compound and name of property. Since most of the compilations indexed in ThermoDex are in printed form, they must be consulted in the library.

Librarian

Anna McGilvray