Library tutorial for 3rd year Chemistry

In the course of projects, essays and practicals in Chemistry, you often need to search a variety of chemical literature sources for physical data, reactions, syntheses, techniques or concepts. This tutorial introduces:

• SciFinder Scholar: finding journal articles on chemistry topics
• Getting the full text of journal articles
• Other chemical literature sources

It includes questions to give practice in using the literature sources. The tutorial is not marked and answers are provided. You are not being asked to submit answers to MyUni or elsewhere.

SciFinder Scholar:
finding journal articles in chemistry

Journal articles are important sources of chemical data and methods. Since the Library catalogue does not list each article in a journal, you need to search chemical literature databases to find articles on a topic or substance. The most important is SciFinder Scholar, a database version of the printed index Chemical abstracts, which lets you find journal articles, patents, books, review articles, conferences, dissertations and reports in chemistry, chemical engineering, biochemistry and related subjects from 1907 onwards. It can be searched by

• substance: structure, molecular formula, chemical name
• topic
• author, organization name

SciFinder Scholar also includes the Medline database, which indexes biomedical literature.

In the Library, you can search SciFinder Scholar on any student computers that ask you to log in, but not on public computers. The exercises below refer to the Library's introductory guide. You can also look at:

• the Library's video demonstrations (which need Flash player) of a substructure search (4 mins), a reaction search (3 mins), a search for metal-containing structures using the Analyze function (2 mins)
• Guides on SciFinder Scholar's own web site

Other chemical literature sources

SciFinder Scholar and the journals it indexes give comprehensive access to chemical data. However, you should also know about other useful sources.

At the Library home page, choose the Resource guides tab and link to the Chemistry resources page. Look at the web pages on:

• Databases
  SciFinder scholar is by far the best chemical literature database but you may sometimes need to use the other databases listed there.

• Electronic journals
  This web page links to a list of chemistry electronic journals which allows quick browsing. If you don't find a journal on the list, always check it directly in the catalogue.

• Data sources
  Chemistry has many long-established printed collections of chemical data, ranging from single volume handbooks of common data to multivolume comprehensive works. Data are also on the Web either as subscription databases like Dictionary of organic compounds or free collections.
  • Data collections and techniques in all areas of chemistry e.g. handbooks such as Lange's handbook of chemistry, more comprehensive sets of data such as the Journal of physical and chemical reference data, Web sources such as the NIST Chemistry WebBook or the data search engine ChemFinder.
  • Organic compounds data sources including the database Dictionary of organic compounds, the comprehensive though dated printed German set of data Beilstein Handbuch der organischen Chemie and Methoden der organischen Chemie (Houben-Weyl) for organic reactions.
  • Inorganic and coordination compounds and Organometallic compound data sources including Gmelin Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie, Dictionary of inorganic compounds and Dictionary of organometallic compounds.
  • Environmental chemistry, safety which covers the large range of web and print sources (e.g. Material safety data sheets) containing common physical properties and environmental and safety data
  • Finding chemical properties which guides you to often requested properties (e.g. dissociation constants).

Gmelin As an example of a major printed reference work, look at the Gmelin Handbuch der anorganischen Chemie (Gmelin Handbook of inorganic chemistry) listed in the Inorganic and coordination compounds section with a link to a brief guide. Imagine that you want data on organometallic compounds of osmium. First find the Gmelin volume number (system number) for osmium by checking the periodic table in the inside front cover of most volumes (e.g. the formula index volumes shelved at the end). The osmium Gmelin volume number (in green) is 66, which you can find on the spine label of volumes. Under volume 66 are a main volume covering the element and its inorganic compounds and two series of supplementary volumes covering organometallic compounds. The later volumes are in English. Browse these to get an idea of Gmelin's arrangement. Note the table of contents and formula indexes at the back. Also look at the 3 series of formula indexes which lead to volume and pages for specific compounds. Question 4 What is the Gmelin volume number for iron? See Answer 4

Dictionary of organic compounds Dictionary of organic compounds is a useful quick source for common physical properties such as melting point, boiling point, dissociation constant, density, structure, synonyms. Question 5 To connect to it, follow the Dictionary of organic compounds link in the Organic compounds web page. Search thiazole as chemical name. (Hit Enter or use Submit search button on the left vertical bar.) Click the thiazole link to get property details. Note the References at the end, each indicating whether the article covers synthesis, spectra etc. What is the listed pKa of thiazole? See Answer 5

Answers Note: The full questions are given above. Question 1 What are the first words of the Campbell article? Answer The kinetic resolution of Question 2 Where would you find the Thurber article? Answer Barr Smith Main collection 547.505 J79 Question 3 In what journal is the 2003 article by Kotsikorou et al? Answer Journal of Medicinal Chemistry Question 4 What is the Gmelin volume number for iron? Answer 59 Question 5 What is the listed pKa of thiazole in the Dictionary of organic compounds? Answer 2.52