Touloukian's Bibliography
The physicist Y.S. Touloukian (1920-1981) observed long ago that traditional bibliographic indexes such as
Chemical Abstracts did a relatively poor job of helping the researcher locate physical property data buried within the primary literature. He was a tireless advocate for improving the quality of scientific data collection and evaluation and, equally importantly, improving access to that data after the fact. In the 1960s and 70s he undertook a mammoth project to identify and adequately index documents that contained property data. The result was the
Thermophysical Properties Research Literature Retrieval Guide. Its
2nd edition was published in three volumes in 1967, covering the literature between 1920 and 1964; followed by two 6-volume supplemental sets that updated the coverage through 1977. In 1982 a
3rd edition combined all the information into seven volumes based on type of substance, covering 1900-1980 and indexing over 75,000 source documents and over 44,000 substances. It serves as a companion to the better known
Thermophysical Properties of Matter series (1970-79) which contains actual evaluated data, and its online successor the
TPMD database.
Properties Covered
The term "thermophysical properties" as used by TPRC signifies macroscopic (bulk) transport and thermodynamic properties, including:
- Thermal conductivity
- Specific heat at constant pressure (i.e. heat capacity)
- Viscosity
- Thermal radiative properties (emmisivity, absorptivity, reflectivity, transmissivity, optical constants)
- Diffusion coefficient and permeability
- Thermal diffusivity
- Prandtl number
- Expansion coefficient
Materials Covered
Elements and their compounds; ferrous and nonferrous alloys; mixtures; composites; polymers; refractories; glasses; natural products; minerals; paints and coatings; slags, scales, aggregates, etc. The three-volume base set of the 2nd edition combined all these into a single classified list; the supplements and the 3rd edition separated them into self-contained volumes each covering a particular category of materials. TPRC tended to focus on solid state materials, especially inorganic, metals, alloys, and composites both natural and manmade. Small organic molecules were not emphasized, since those data are readily available elsewhere.
Arrangement and Use
The Guide is an idiosynchratic tool. The volumes contain explanations and examples in the prefatory sections and on the end pages. These are the basic search steps:
- Identify the "class" of desired substance.
- Look up the name of the substance in the appropriate class section (each of which is a separate volume in the Supplements and 3rd edition).
- Refer to the Property column to see if the desired property code is listed for that substance. If it's not, you're finished.
- Note the substance number and look it up in the corresponding chapter for that specific property.
- Entries in the property sections are annotated according to physical state, subject, temperature range, and language. If an entry seems to match the conditions you're looking for, note the serial number.
- Look up the serial number in the Bibliography section to get the complete reference. There is also an author index.
Location
2nd edition and 1st Supplement: TA 418.52 P872 1967, Chemistry Library Reference
3rd edition: TA 418.52 P872 1982, Chemistry Library Reference (selected volumes only)
Find in another library
