Web tools for chemistry
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Due to the sheer size of the Internet, there's a huge amount of scientific data for chemistry and educational procedures. Unfortunately, it's not always easily accessible and most cannot be found with a simple search. Knowing which websites can ease your search is very important.
Note: This is for scientific and educational websites and libraries. YouTube and other video-sharing channels belong here while discussion websites and forums here.
Contents
Informational websites
Chemtutor
Chemtutor offers good information about basic chemistry.
Dynamic Periodic Table
The Dynamic Periodic Table offers general information about every element in many languages. It can also display a list of various compounds of the selected element, with links to Wikipedia.
EROS
The Encyclopedia of Reagents for Organic Synthesis contains lots of useful reactions about a variety of organic chemical compounds.
LambdaSyn
LambdaSyn is a site containing the synthesis of various compounds, mostly gathered from various websites and articles. The site is in German only.
MITOpenCourseWare
[1] Offers video tutorials about the most important chemical procedures.
PrepChem
Prepchem contains detailed syntheses for a huge number of chemical compounds. Registration might be required for full access.
Virtual Textbook of Organic Chemistry
[2] Contains various information about basic chemistry procedures.
WebElements
Similar to DynamicPeriodicTable, WebElements offers information about the elements of the periodic table.
Wikipedia
The most convenient source of information, Wikipedia is the most accessible online encyclopedia. While it can be edited by anyone, some articles may be protected while references are to be added whenever new information is added. Overall, despite some issues, it's a pretty handy source of information, though it should not be your only one.
Digital libraries
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is a San Francisco–based nonprofit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including web sites, software applications/games, music, movies/videos, moving images, and nearly three million public-domain books. Various public domain chemistry books and journals can be downloaded from the site.
Library Genesis
Library Genesis or LibGen is a search engine/library for scientific articles and books, which allows free access to otherwise paywalled content.
Project Gutenberg
Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, Project Gutenberg (PG) and is the oldest digital library in existence. Plenty of public domain chemistry books can be downloaded freely from the site.
Databases and indexes
Dortmund Data Bank
The Dortmund Data Bank (or DDB) is a factual data bank for thermodynamic and thermophysical data of various chemical compounds, such as phase equilibria data, solubilities, melting and boiling points, heat capacities, viscosities, etc.
DrugBank
The DrugBank database is a comprehensive, freely accessible, online database containing information on various drugs and drug targets. Because it's extremely detailed, DrugBank is more akin to a drug encyclopedia than a drug database.
PubChem
PubChem is a database of chemical molecules, maintained by the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI), a component of the National Library of Medicine, which is part of the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH). PubChem allows to find and download useful data, such as properties, structures and descriptive datasets. However, PubChem is very incomplete and as such lots of useful information is missing.
PubMed
PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics, though it can also be used to find chemistry-related publications.
Reaxys
Reaxys is a web-based tool maintained by Elsevier, which allows for searching through published journals and patents for compound properties, synthesis, reactions, etc. It allows access to the Gmelin and Beilstein database. Access can be done from your local university, if it's subscribed.
Scopus
Scopus is a bibliographic database containing abstracts and citations for academic journal articles. It covers nearly 22,000 titles from over 5,000 publishers, of which 20,000 are peer-reviewed journals in the scientific, technical, medical, and social sciences. Access is subscription only.
Open access journals
Organic Syntheses
Organic Syntheses or Orgsyn is a peer-reviewed scientific journal, which publishes detailed and checked procedures for the synthesis of organic compounds. A unique feature of the review process is that all of the data and experiments reported in an article must be successfully repeated in the laboratory of a member of the editorial board as a check for reproducibility prior to publication.
Other
MySafetyLabels
MSL allows the creation of safety labels for various hazardous items and reagent bottles and more.
Sci-Hub
Sci-Hub is an online search engine used for accessing articled that are normally behind paywall. It's been estimated that over 60,000,000 academic papers and articles have been made available for direct download since the site's creation in 2011.
Note that accessing the site through monitored locations, like university campuses, commercial enterprises and governmental institutions may be illegal, though many such places have simply blocked the site.
