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Background

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Other Sources

Literature Searching

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Quality of Data

 

ThermoDex

Legend:

critical - Critically evaluated data
star - Recommended
e-book - Electronic resource
U.T. restricted - UT-Austin restricted
print - Print resource

Finding Thermodynamic and Physical Property Data


Background

Searching for thermodynamic and physical property data of chemical substances can be time-consuming and frustrating. It truly is like searching for a very specific needle in a huge and utterly disorganized mountain of needles -- and the one you're looking for may not even exist. One of the reasons why people tend to take shortcuts and make potentially serious mistakes with data is that the mechanisms for finding reliable data are imperfect, never comprehensive, and often mysterious.

It is usually not difficult to locate reliable data for standard gases, small organic molecules, and common inorganic substances in pure form, along with their aqueous solutions and well-known binary systems. Standard reference tools like the CRC Handbook, the NIST WebBook, and DIPPR can answer many of these basic questions. But if you are looking for data for a complex or proprietary material -- things like polymers, drugs, biological molecules, composites, newly synthesized compounds, or commercial products -- published data often don't exist. It can also be difficult to find data covering atypical conditions such as extreme temperatures and pressures; extrapolation of known data to such conditions may not be reliable. Engineers often rely on property values calculated by estimation programs. These are useful within their stated limits, but are outside the scope of this page, which is focused on finding published literature values.

High-quality data can be found in certain online databases, but these almost always require a subscription or a fee to use. Most property data published over the last century are not in any database or on the Web. Many printed secondary data compilations have been published over the years, of varying quality and scope. They are all arranged differently, sometimes incomprehensibly. They cover different types of compounds and properties, and they tend to be scattered in a library, making them hard to remember and locate. Data reported in the primary journal and technical report literature can be even more elusive.

This guide is based on the holdings of the Mallet Chemistry Library at the University of Texas. It is not meant to be comprehensive, but aims to list the most reliable and important resources both in print and online, and to describe various data collection agencies and their publications. (A far more thorough listing of published data compilations can be found in ThermoDex.)

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