CHEM 342 -Organic Chemistry - Martin Walker - 2024 Spring

You will likely end up searching in a variety of places.  There is no guarantee that they will all refer to your topic interests with the same labels.  You may need to search with:

• text
• chemical formula
• CAS or other standard numbers

It is to your benefit to anticipate this and have ready at hand as many ways to describe your interests as possible.  In the field of chemistry, basic considerations include:

1) Textual representation of the "name" of the chemicals you are dealing with.

• be aware of both appropriate and inappropriate variations/synonyms/related terms
  • know what are acceptable variations (if any)
  • be careful of similar, but not useful, labels
• be aware of both generic and brand-name labels (e.g. acetaminophen vs. tylenol)
• IUPAC systematic name

2) Chemical formula

3) Chemical structures: see lab handout for graphic

4) Standard Numbers:

• CAS registry number
• IUPAC Standard InChI
• plenty of others, such as SMILES, InChIKey,... Many are listed in wikipedia (look for the green check mark for approval)

5) Other appropriate related terms. 

• Is this a "named" reaction?  If so, what is the name, e.g. Grignard reaction? Suzuki Coupling? Wittig?
• Rather than single chemicals, you could find a useful process by looking for the category of products and/or reactants, e.g. "tertiary alcohols".

For this lab, these significant identifying information labels for the product(s) and reactant(s) are given in the lab handout.  Copy and paste from the lab handout rather than guessing or typing.  For other chemicals, use the resources listed in the box below.

Use Freely Available Chemistry Substance Databases (also found through the library page for Additional Sources for Chemistry) such as:

• CAS Common Chemistry
• PubChem
• IUPAC Goldbook
• Wikipedia

Use Subscription Databases:

• CAS variations (such as STN)