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Searching by Properties

Literature Searching

Quality of Data

 

U.T. restricted UT-Austin restricted
print Print resource
critical Critically evaluated data
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COMPOUNDS
organics Organics
inorganics Inorganic/Metal Compounds
polymers Polymers

Searching by Properties

Most database tools assume you are searching for properties of a known substance. However, sometimes you may need to search for unknown substances that share certain property parameters. Here's a summary of tools that allow this kind of searching, with their advantages and disadvantages.

Tool Pros Cons Notes
Combined Chemical Dictionary
organics inorganics U.T. restricted 		Covers around 600,000 organic, inorganic, and organometallic compounds plus natural products. Not many numeric data fields are available. CCD is mainly a database for identification, structure, and bibliographic information. Click the "Add Property" button to select fields not in the basic search form.
CRC handbook of chemistry and physics.
organics inorganics U.T. restricted star 		Easy to use. Only about 22 property choices are available, and the number of compounds covered varies widely depending on the property needed. Use the Structure/Property search form to select property field(s) and enter the desired property values/ranges.
DIPPR
organics critical U.T. restricted star 		Searching is easy and intuitive, and covers all properties in the database. Multiple properties can be searched in turn. Data are very reliable. DIPPR only covers about 3000 pure organic compounds. Click on the "Property" button to begin.
Properties of Organic Compounds
organics U.T. restricted 		Covers about 29,000 important organic compounds. The data fields available are mp, bp, density, refractive index, specific rotation, and spectral peaks; not thermodynamic or physical. Range searching is not available. The interface is antiquated. You can search multiple peaks using the AND operator within a single field.
Reaxys
organics inorganics U.T. restricted star 		By far the largest source of literature-derived property values for millions of organic and inorganic compounds, with hundreds of different property fields. The Properties (Advanced) tab uses search syntax that is sometimes difficult to use, and the help pages are not that helpful. Getting accurate results requires patience and practice. Due to the volume of available data, property ranges should be relatively narrow, and ideally combined with other kinds of searches to make results more manageable.
SciFinder - Registry
organics inorganics polymers U.T. restricted 		Millions of compounds in the Registry file contain experimental or calculated property values. Not that many kinds of properties are searchable, and none are thermodynamic. Experimental properties are not particularly deep or wide, and calculated properties are mainly for drug discovery uses. You can Explore by Substance and enter specific property values or ranges to retrieve matching compounds. You can also limit a substance answer set by selected property parameters.