LibGuides: CHEM 3070: Industrial and Green Chemistry: Home

Chemical Identifiers

Chemical Name: Chemicals can have dozens of synonyms. Common types of chemical names include:

Common name

e.g. ibuprofen

Trade name

e.g. Advil

Systematic (IUPAC) name

e.g. 2-(4-isobutylphenyl)propanoic acid

Other synonyms

e.g. list of synonyms for ibuprofen

Molecular Formula: Be careful using molecular formula to search; many substances have the same molecular formula.

e.g. C₁₃H₁₈O₂

CAS Registry Number: CAS Registry Numbers are unique chemical identifiers. CAS Numbers are proprietary identifiers maintained by Chemical Abstact Services (CAS), makers of SciFinder. Many chemistry databases make use of CAS Numbers.

e.g. 15687-27-1

Wikipedia/Common Chemistry: This Wikipedia/CAS collaboration is handy for finding identifiers for common chemicals.

American Chemical Society (ACS) Style

ACS Style is commonly used by chemists. It is the style used by the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Quick Guide: ACS Citation Style
The ACS guide to scholarly communication
"The ACS Guide to Scholarly Communication covers everything from classic journal authoring topics (now completely modernized) such as Organization of Your Article and Peer Review, to styling conventions needed for all scholarly communication, such as Chemical Nomenclature and Effective Writing and Word Usage, to emerging areas of interest in scholarly communication, including Open Access & Open Science, Sharing Data, Communicating Safety Information, and Preprints."
CAS Source Index Search (CASSI)
A search engine for abbreviations of journals appearing in SciFinder.

Citation Management

Organize your sources and cite them automatically in your papers using one of these free citation managers.

Minglu Wang

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Major Information Sources

Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry by Barbara Elvers; Stephen Hawkins; William E. Russey; Wiley-VCH Staff; James E. Bailey
Call Number: Steacie Reference: TP 9 U57 2003
Kirk-Othmer Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology by Wiley-Interscience Publication Staff (Editor)
Call Number: Steacie Reference: TP 9 K54 2004
More Chemistry Encyclopedias

Physical & Chemical Properties

CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics
A comprehensive handbook of constants, properties, and data for every branch of science.
NIST Chemistry WebBook
Searchable data collections from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) covering thermochemical and reaction data for organic and inorganic compounds, spectra, constants of diatomic molecules, ion energetics, and thermophysical data.
SciFinder
Contains property data for more than 89 million substances. Register for an account using your York email address.
Reaxys
Reaxys is a web-based search and retrieval system for chemical compounds, bibliographic data and chemical reactions. Reaxys accesses the combined wealth of trustworthy, experimental substance and reaction data and bibliographic data housed in the Beilstein, Gmelin and Patent Chemistry Databases.
Combined Chemical Dictionary
“This dictionary is a structured database containing detailed information on chemical substances. It includes descriptive and numerical data on the chemical, physical, and biological properties of compounds; systematic and common names of compounds; literature reference; structure diagrams and their associated connection tables.” Contains over 500,000 compounds.
PubChem
Contains property data on over 145 million substances.
ChemSpider
Contains property data on over 30 million substances.
Knovel Handbooks
A searchable collection of handbooks on science and engineering topics, including chemistry and chemical engineering.
The Merck Index
"A source of data on over 10,000 compounds chosen particularly for their importance in biology, medicine, and ecology."
Lange's Handbook of Chemistry
Provides property data for over 4000 organic and 1400 organic compounds.
Polymers: A Property Database
"Provides scientific and commercial information on over 1,050 polymers."
Handbook of Inorganic Compounds
"Covers physical constants and other properties for about 3300 inorganic compounds."
Call Number: Steacie Reference QD 155.5 H36 2011

Patent-Containing Chemistry Databases

SciFinder
Patents can be searched for by patent number, assignee, inventor, and publication year. Patents are also linked from substance records.
Reaxys
Patents can be searched for by patent number, assignee, year, status, inventor, and several other properties. Patents are also linked from substance records.
ChemSpider
Patents are linked from substance records
PubChem
Patents are linked from substance records.
Merck Index
Patent information is provided in the records of many substances.
The Canadian Patent Register
Contains Canadian patents associated with human and veterinary drugs. Maintained by Health Canada.

General Patent Databases

Espacenet
The European Patent Office's international patent database contains patents from 1836 to present.
Derwent Innovation Index
Combines unique value-added patent information indexed from over 50 patent issuing authorities in the Derwent World Patent Index (1963-present) with patent citations indexed from the Derwent Patents Citation Index (1973-present). Indexes patents and literature including those referenced by the examiner, inventor/author, or opposition/third party during the determination of patentability.
Canadian Patent Database
A database of Canadian patents registered since 1869.
United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO)
A database of patents registered with the USPTO since 1790.
Google Patents
Searches patent documents from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the European Patent Office (EPO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

Journal Article Databases

Search these databases to find journal articles.

SciFinder This link opens in a new window
Scifinder is a database specialized in chemistry, chemical engineering, biochemistry, medicine, materials sciences, pharmaceutical sciences and related disciplines. Search for chemical substances and properties, spectra, reactions, and literature collected by the American Chemical Society’s Chemical Abstracts Service since the early 1800’s. To access SciFinder you must register for an individual account using your YorkU e-mail address.
Visit the SciFinder Training Site for help using SciFinder.
See YouTube videos
More information about SciFinder.
Reaxys This link opens in a new window
Database of organic, inorganic and organometallic chemistry information curated and indexed by chemists from peer-reviewed literature, patents, conference abstracts, and substance data from publicly available and proprietary databases such as Beilstein and Gmelin. Search for chemical substances, properties, reactions, and literature from as far back as 1771. See tutorials and videos

Web of Science
Contains a broad selection of journal articles from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities going back over 100 yeras. Useful for citation chaining as lists of citing and cited articles are highly interconnected. Maintained by Clarivate Analytics. Coverage information is available at the Clarivate website. Visit the Web of Science Training Website for help.
Scopus
Contains journal articles from the sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Useful for citation chaining as lists of citing and cited articles are highly interconnected. Maintained by Elsevier. Coverage information is available at the Elsevier website. Visit the Scopus Training Website for help.
PubMed
Contains journal articles from the biomedical sciences. Provided free of charge online by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Coverage information is available at the NIH website. Coverage overlaps significantly with MEDLINE; see the NLM Fact Sheet What's the Difference Between MEDLINE and PubMed for more details. Visit the PubMed Tutorial Page for help.
MEDLINE (Ovid)
Contains journal articles from the biomedical sciences. Maintained by the US National Library of Medicine (NLM) and provded through an Ovid interface. Coverage overlaps significantly with PubMed; see the NLM Fact Sheet What's the Difference Between MEDLINE and PubMed for more details. Visit the Ovid Online Training website for help.
Google Scholar
More a search engine than a database, Google Scholar searches the scholarly literature broadly. Use Google Scholar to quickly find known journal articles, view citing articles (useful for citation chaining), and locate free full text copies of journal articles. Make sure that your Google Scholar is connected to York University Libraries by clicking on Settings > Library Links and searching for York University.
Organic Chemistry Portal
Search organic name reactions and syntheses, view organic chemistry highlights, abstracts, reducing/oxidizing agents, and more.

Omni Searching Books/E-Books

Omni, available via the library home page, is the new search tool shared by 18 Ontario university libraries. With a single search you can find a variety of resources held at York University Libraries and the other Omni partner libraries.

To find books or e-books follow these steps:

Step 1: Apply the Relevant Search Scope

Omni can be used to search for books or e-books in three different domains, equivalent to search scopes:

York Libraries
York Libraries + Omni Libraries (default search mode)
Course reserves

In general we advise that you choose the first option. If you cannot find what you need this way, choosing the second option will find more books and e-books, which may be available using inter-library loan options linked from system records.

Step 2: Conduct your search

Results are automatically sorted by relevance including:

Frequency of matching search words
A value score (query words in author, title, subject, plus date)
Proximity of search words to one another

If you sort by the newest date, you lose the relevance ranking.

Step 3: Avail of the Search Filters and limit to Books & E-Books under Resource Type

These search filters appear once results load along the left-side of the screen

Use our Omni Guide to learn more about effective search strategies in Omni. Key terms to know are Search Scope, Facet, Boolean, Truncation, Wildcards, and Limits.

CHEM 3070: Industrial and Green Chemistry: Home

Workshop Slides