CHM 298 Assignment #7 (Due Friday, February 24 by 5:00)

CHEMnetBASE Search

Let's take a break from journal articles this week. Let's suppose that you are looking for information (chemical properties, physical properties, hazards) about a particular chemical. Very often you will be called upon to look up such information about chemicals you will be using in lab. Where do you go to look for such information? There are varous books in the library (the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, the Merck Index) that will give you this information. This week, however, we will use an online database to look up the chemical and physical properties of some chemicals.

1. Go to the library's main page, and go to electronic resources

2. Choose "database subject" and click on "chemistry"

3. Click on "CHEMnetBASE" , on "Combined Chemical Dictionary" and finally on "enter the database"

This database will allow you to sarch for chemical name, chemical formula, CAS number, as well as several other options. We will be searching for chemical name.

4. Locate the chemical assigned to you (see the table below) and eneter in the "chemical name" box. Answer each of the following questions about the chemical assigned to you.

a. What is the chemical formula?

b. What is the molecular weight?

c. What is the CAS registry number for this compound?

d. Does the chemical go by any other common names?

e. Are there any uses listed for this chemical? What are they?

f. How is the chemical made? (This may or may not be described)

g. Are they any special hazards associated with this chemical? Is it toxic? Is it moisture-sensitive? Is it air-sensitive? (Incidentally, most of the chemicals I have assigned you are fairly nasty!)

h. Is there a structure listed for the chemical? (If so, include it in your report).

Another site (not associated with the library) is www.chemfinder.com. This site will also allow you to search for a chemical by name, formula, or CAS number. This site provides structures for many of the compounds! In case you do not know this trick, you can save any internet image by moving the cursor over the image, clicking the right mouse botton, and selecting "save picture as." Afterwards, the image can be imported into your Word document.

Let me know if you have any questions. Have fun!