Research Guides: CHM379: Biomolecular Chemistry: Substances, Properties, and Safety Information

Searching for Substance & Property Data

There are a wide variety of places to find specific data for your labs and assignments. It's always a good idea to track data back to its original source if possible, especially when you find conflicting values or discover an outlier. This can help you better understand under what conditions the data were collected, and whether they represent an average, predicted or experimental value.

Need tips on finding property data? Check out our Finding Property Data Cheat Sheet!

Finding Property Data Cheat Sheet

Safety Data Sheets (SDS)

Safety Data Sheets provide information on chemicals used in the lab, including their basic property information as well as how to safely handle and dispose of them.

Safety Data Sheets (SDS) Database
Search the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health & Safety's (CCOHS) database to find 50,000+ safety data sheets from different manufacturers. Use the filters on the left to search by product name or manufacturer/supplier.

Other Ways to Find SDS

Many manufacturers and suppliers provide free access to safety data sheets on their websites. You can also find the SDS by entering the product/common name for the substance and "sds" in Google.

Chemical & Physical Properties

Handbooks & Online Resources

If you need basic property information about a well-known compound, a trusted handbook or reference resource is often the quickest option. The resources below are great starting points:

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
The CRC Handbook is a comprehensive reference resource for the sciences that has been a trusted resource for chemical and physical data for over 100 years. Search the online handbook by keyword or navigate to different sections to view interactive data tables.

Combined Chemical Dictionary
Search across multiple chemical dictionaries, including Dictionary of Natural Products, Dictionary of Organic Compounds, and Dictionary of Drugs. Search by chemical structure, property values, chemical name, CAS registry number and more to find information about a wide range of compounds.
NIST Chemistry WebBook
Provides basic substance information as well as thermochemical, thermophysical, and ion energetics data compiled by National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST).
Pharmaceutical Substances
Syntheses, patents, and applications for more than 2,800 active pharmaceutical ingredients (API's) of interest to the chemical and pharmaceutical industries.
Merck Index Online
Produced by the Royal Society of Chemistry, The Merck Index has been an authoritative and reliable source of key physical, pharmacological and historical information on chemicals, drugs and biologicals for over 130 years.

Databases

The databases below contain property information for a wide variety of different substances and compounds. Reaxys and SciFinder are subscription resources compiled and reviewed by experts, while free resources like PubChem and ChemSpider collect substance data from sources across the internet. If you don't find the information you are looking for in the first database you try, check another!

For additional and more specialized resources, please visit our Chemistry Research Guide.

Subscription Databases

Reaxys
Compounds and related factual properties, reaction and synthesis information, and citation data.
SciFinder-n
Produced by Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS), is the most comprehensive source for searching the chemical literature. Search by topic, author, substance name or CAS Registry Number, or use the editor to draw chemical structures, substructures, or reactions.

Free Databases

PubChem
An open chemistry database at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Mostly contains small molecules, but also includes larger molecules such as nucleotides, carbohydrates, lipids, peptides, and chemically-modified macromolecules.
ChemSpider
Created by the Royal Society of Chemistry, ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database providing access to over 100 million structures, properties, and associated information.

Useful Guides

Unable to find what you are looking for in the resources above? For less common properties and substances, you may need to expand your search to specialized resources that are specific to certain types of properties, spectra, or substance classes. The guides below will help direct you to additional resources that may be useful beyond those listed above. If you are interested in a handbook or resource and would like help locating it at U of T Libraries, please contact your librarian for further assistance.

Finding Chemical and Physical Properties (Vanderbuilt University)
Select the chemical or physical property you are looking for from the alphabetical list to view suggested handbooks and other resources that contain that type of data. If you are unable to access a resource, search for the title in LibrarySearch or ask your librarian for assistance.
ThermoDex (University of Texas)
Enter a type of compound and/or the property you are interested in to find suggested handbooks that may contain the data you need. Many of these books are available in print at the Chemistry Library or at other U of T libraries.

Research Guides

CHM379: Biomolecular Chemistry

Your Chemistry Librarian

Chemistry Library

Searching for Substance & Property Data

Safety Data Sheets (SDS)

Other Ways to Find SDS

Chemical & Physical Properties

Handbooks & Online Resources

Databases

Subscription Databases

Free Databases

Useful Guides

Library links

Libraries

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