Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Books for the beginner books (or how to brush up on old studies one has forgotten)

mrzwing - 24-12-2015 at 10:22

Hello
Recently my old interest in chemistry has manifested (manly thanks to some awesome youtube channels) but my bookcase is filled with many books but few of them are chemistry books and do not contain to much of what I'm looking for.

Is there any good beginner book for amateur chemists or like me need to reawaken my old learnings from my studious days. so i guess i have to hang my head in shame and say most of it is gone.

the main thing I'm looking for i guess a book that explains synthesis processes of chemicals and or how to refine or extract chemicals from different sources. or just good books any chemist should have at home to browse through.

i mainly want to do organic chemistry but why restrict one self.

Magpie - 24-12-2015 at 11:09

Check out the forum library for syntheses.

gdflp - 24-12-2015 at 11:09

We have a site library here with quite a few options. For organic chemistry, Fieser's Experiments in Organic Chemistry and Experimental Organic Chemistry by Norris are both good options. For more advanced organic chemistry, a good option is Vogel's <b>Practical Organic Chemistry</b>. As for advanced inorganic chemistry <b>Handbook of Practical Inorganic Chemistry</b> by Brauer, and <b>Inorganic Laboratory Preparations</b> by Schlessinger are both good options. <b>King's Chemistry</b> may also be useful, though it's not my favorite personally.

If you have any questions, let us know! The Short Questions Thread is a good place for, surprisingly, short questions.;)

Texium - 24-12-2015 at 12:17

Robert Bruce Thompson's Illustrated Guide to Home Chemistry Experiments is a great one for when you're starting out. I know many people on here own a copy of it. Not only does it have instructions for many fairly simple experiments, it also has a ton of good advice and tips on how to set up a home lab, and lists of the most necessary equipment and chemicals and where to get them. I don't use mine that often anymore, but when I was first getting started it was pretty much the bible.

Thank you

mrzwing - 28-12-2015 at 11:36

Thank you for your answers i have downloaded the library (yest the entire thing). and also Kings of Chemistry and will look through them.

i will Post minor questions in the proper thread in the future.

aga - 28-12-2015 at 13:08

aaaaaaaaand Welcome to Science Madness mrzwing !

Books are Great.

Youtube is good if you have an idea what you're looking for.

The Beginners topic on SM is simply the Best for everything.

('Beginners' just means Beginners on the Forum, not Beginners to Chemistry)

jsc - 6-1-2016 at 12:54

Some useful resources (all available via Google Books):

Handbook of Chemistry, Gmelin, 1851
Dictionary of Chemistry, Watts, 1854
Druggist's Formulary, Kilner, 1889
Dictionary of Applied Chemistry, Thorpe, 1922

careysub - 6-1-2016 at 15:39

One problem with older books is the vast changes in terminology, there has been a lot evolution of terminology even relatively recently (last 50 years).

BTW, does anyone have handy links to PDFs of the IUPAC "Colour Books" of official terminology?

[Edited on 6-1-2016 by careysub]

Polverone - 6-1-2016 at 17:45

I didn't check every single link, but it looks like IUPAC publishes free-but-watermarked PDFs of the books on their site: http://www.iupac.org/home/publications/e-resources/nomenclat...

Inorganic chemistry

Romix - 22-1-2016 at 05:34

Hello Dear forum members.
Please recommend me book to read, or any other good ways of studying inorganic chemistry.

Things like why valencys changing.
Why oxy salts forming.


Maybe there is expiriments to do, which might help me understand it better? What to start with?