Chemical Nomenclature and Locating Chemicals

Chemical Nomenclature

A chemical substance may have several different names, such as

a standard IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) name
an informal "common" or archaic name (for example: acetone or isopropyl alcohol)
an IUPAC or common name shortened into an acronym (common with biological chemicals)

Many chemists tend to use shortened and common chemical names, especially in lab work and in journal articles. There is no single source which can translate a common chemical name into an IUPAC name quickly.

An alternative to chemical names are CAS registry numbers. Both Scifinder Scholar and Beilstein Crossfire allow searching for substances with common and IUPAC names and CAS registry numbers. Other databases will not have this option, so searching by author or topic will be more successful.

Locating Chemicals

Chemicals come from many vendors and provide addtional information for searching the literature, such as basic property information, CAS Registry Numbers, and safety information such as Material Data Safety Sheets (MSDS).

Web Location	Features:
Aldrich and Sigma On-line Catalog	CAS registry numbers physical property information MSDS data
Fisher Scientific	CAS registry numbers MSDS data chemical storage information
Catalogs Search	Lists of chemical catalogs from over 30 chemical companies.
ChemFinder	CAS registry numbers chemical formulae physical property information
Thomas Register of American Manufacturers	Online industrial supplier directory.