Properties of Chemicals and Materials: START HERE: Best Databases to Begin Your Property Searching

You can locate property data for your compound through a substance search in the 219-million compound CAS Registry. From the Registry record, browse the tabs under Experimental and Properties to see what's available. You may find actual data points or a notation to see "full-text" with a citation to the actual article where you can locate the data. can be found in the substance record, with literature references for the experimental data. You can also search SciFinder by research topic, which can be helpful if you're searching for a broad group of properties and/or group of compounds, like enthalpy of halogenated benzenes or mechanical properties of carbonitrides.

• First-time SciFinder users will need to register - VPN required if off-campus.

Database of millions of substances, many with experimental property data. Every property fact is associated with at least one article or patent reference. The easiest way to search is by substance, then bring up the record and browse the available properties, including physical, electrical, chromatographic, magnetic, mechanical, spectra, optical, and thermodynamic. You can also search by one or more properties using the query builder.

Collection of 11,000 handbooks and databases for chemistry and engineering, including a large number property data sources. Click more to see some sample titles.

• From Material Property Search, enter your material or chemical, then browse and select from the list of available properties grouped by category (electrical, mechanical, thermal/thermodynamic, etc.). Data are presented in interactive, downloadable tables and, in some cases, interactive graphs.

World's largest collection of freely available chemical information, with more than 115 million compounds records (compiled from 300+ million substance records), The records include physical properties, spectra, safety and hazard information, and more, There are more than 900 data sources contributing to PubChem, primarily chemical vendors, research and development organizations, and government agencies.

Single search for CRC's collection of chemical information databases. Includes CRC Handbook of Chemistry & Physics, Dictionary of Organic Compounds, Dictionary of Natural Products, Properties of Organic Compounds, and Polymers: A Property Database.

Major reference work that extensively covers the structure, properties, processing, performance, and evaluation of metals and nonmetallic engineering materials. Includes the 30+ volume ASM Handbook series, the Engineered Materials Handbook Desk Edition, and the Metals Handbook Desk Edition

• ASM adds or revises several volumes annually, so note the article publishing date to decide if it's current enough for your needs.

Properties database with datasheets for more than 170,000 engineering materials: metals, polymers, ceramics, composites, and more. Free to search and use, with an option to register for added functionality.

Extensive collection of physical property data. IMPORTANT: This series is now part of SpringerMaterials, which we don't license. However, you can still search the SpringerMaterials database for your compound and property. If the document you need is from a pre-2010 volume of Landolt-Börnstein, you can access it online via Portico. Make sure you note the Landolt volume and document name (often the compound in question) from your SpringerMaterials search, which you'll need when you browse the volumes in Portico. Instructions on searching SpringerMaterials to locate a Landolt-Börnstein chapter in Portico [PDF].