Chemical and Material Information Sources - STEM - Free & Open Access Resources - LibGuides at University of California San Diego

Searching for Information on Chemical and Materials

Here are some free databases if you're looking for information about chemicals or materials, including crystal structures, spectra, and physical properties. Some may include associated journal article references.

PubChem
Open chemistry database of 96+ million compounds, with property and safety data coming from multiple data sources, including government agencies, R&D organizations, and chemical vendors.
CAS Common Chemistry
Open community resource of chemical information on ~500,000 compounds from the CAS Registry, including common and frequently regulated chemicals, and those relevant to high school and undergraduate chemistry classes.
MatWeb
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.
Access Structures
Free service to search for crystal structures, from the Cambridge Structural Database and Inorganic Crystal Structure Database. You can search by compound name, number or bibliographic information (author, etc.).
The Materials Project
Freely available database of thousands of inorganic compounds, with properties and downloadable crystal structure files.
Crystallography Open Database
Open access collection of crystal structures from organics, organometallics, inorganics, and minerals - +390,000 entries. Structures can be viewed in JSmol and downloaded (.cif).
NIST Chemistry Webbook
16,000 IR spectra, 15,000 mass spectra, and 1,600 UV/Vis spectra.
BRENDA - Comprehensive Enzyme Information System
Main collection of enzyme functional data available to the scientific community
Organic Syntheses
Index of detailed, reliable, and carefully checked (reproducible) procedures for the synthesis of organic compounds.
Chemical Safety Library
Crowd sourced data content containing hazardous reactions that can be used to alert scientists to potential dangerous experiments. From the Pistoia Alliance, with open access provided by CAS.
ChEMBL
Curated database of 2.3+ million bioactive compounds with drug-like properties. Includes activities, target predictions, and literature references.
SpectraBase (IR, M, NMR, R, UV)
Free database of hundreds of thousands of spectra, including NMR, IR (including ATR-IR), Raman, UV-Vis, and Mass. [Free, but registration is required. Some ads as well.]