Chemical Information

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http//teaching.ust.hk/chem391
Spring Semester 2007
http//home.ust.hk/tangbenz
Chemical Information
CHEM391
by Prof. Ben Zhong Tang (? ??)
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Part 1
Introduction, Instruction, Teaching Schedule,
Course Requirements, and Objectives
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Instruction
Instructors Prof. Ben Zhong Tang (BZT)
Rm. 4532 Tel. x7375 tangbenz_at_ust.hk Mr.
Steve Yip, Librarian (SY) Tel. x6756
lbsteve_at_ust.hk

TA Mr. Jianzhao Liu Rm. 7140 Tel.
x7396 liujz_at_ust.hk
Class Times Mondays, 1600-1650 (400-450
PM) and Venue Rms. 4621 4402 (Computer
Barn A)
Prerequisite of Chem392 Students with PASS grade
will proceed to Chem392
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Prerequisites, Textbook, and Accessories
Prerequisites Basic knowledge of nomenclature of
chemical compounds Basic knowledge of
library facilities is assumed
Requirements Attendance at Lectures Participat
ion in class exercise Pass in literature
search assignment
Grading Pass/Fail based on - attendance
(2-times absence of class fail) - search
assignment (Report not sent in on time fail)
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Teaching Schedule(Total 6 weeks)

• Introduction 1st week (Jan 29)
  BZT/4621
• Library resources 2nd 3rd weeks (Feb. 5
  12) SY/4621
• Primary/secondary literature 4th week (Feb
  26) BZT/4621
• Search demonstration 5th week (March 5)
  BZT/4402
• Search practice 6th week (March 12)
  BZT/4402

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Prerequisites, Textbook, and Accessories

• R. E. Maizell How to Find Chemical Information
  3rd Ed. Wiley, New York 1998 QD 8.5 M34 1998
• Information Sources in Chemistry 4th Ed. ed. R.
  T. Bottle and J. F. B. Rowland, Bowker-Saur,
  London, 1993 QD 8.5 147 1993
• G. Wiggins Chemical Information Sources in
  Chemistry 4th Ed. ed. R. T. Bottle, McGraw Hill,
  New York, 1991 QD 8.5 M54 1991

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According to Oxford English Dictionary

• Information
• Communication of the knowledge of some fact or
  occurrence
• Knowledge of facts
• Communication about a particular subject
• Knowledge
• The fact of knowing a thing, state, person, etc.
  
• Understanding of a branch of learning
• Theoretical or practical understanding of
  something
• Apply to the science of chemistry
• An understanding of what things are
• How they interact and may be manipulated and
  changed
• Structure

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Course Objectives
Why Chemical Information acquisition of
Chemical Knowledge?
CHEM 398/PG (M.Phil. or Ph.D.) research, research
articles, etc.

• . Structure of a compound for which you have the
  trivial name (see example)
• . Trivial or systematic name for the compound for
  which you have the structure
• . Physical properties of a compound
• . Biological or medicinal properties of a
  compound
• . Whether there are similar compounds described
  in the chemical literature
• . Method of preparation(s) of a compound
• . Whether a proposed structure is chemically
  realistic (see example)
• . An aspect of calculation of a proposed
  structure, transition state, reaction, etc
• . Spectroscopic properties of a compound
• . And so on

A common, historic, or convenient name for a
substance, derived often from the source in which
the substance was discovered, but unsystematic
and not used in modern official nomenclature, as
sucrose for ?-D-fructofuranosyl-?-D-glucopyranosid
e.
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Examples

• What is Teflon?

• Can you make a compound with the following
  structure?

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Course Objectives (cont.)
For conduct of any research project or exercise,
acquisition of relevant information - knowledge
of the topic - is absolutely essential

• Knowledge . assists in the design of the
  project and development of new experiments
• Knowledge . is the basis of insight and
  explanation
• Knowledge . assists creativity, makes you more
  aware
• Knowledge . prevents duplication of previous
  work surprisingly frequent!
• Knowledge . saves an enormous amount of time
• Knowledge . impresses your supervisor or
  employer
• Knowledge . makes you independent

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Course Objectives (cont.)
The objective of the course is to instruct you to
access relevant chemical information efficiently,
quickly, thoroughly
Not easy !

• Probably over 30 million discrete chemical
  substances known - elements, chemical compounds,
  polymers, materials, etc.
• Enormous mountain of physical and chemical
  property data
• - thermodynamic properties (?H, ?G, ?S )
• - kinetic properties (Ea, k, ..)
• - structural data (bond lengths, angles,
  symmetry, shape )
• - spectroscopic properties (NMR, MS, IR, Raman,
  UV-VIS )
• - electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
• Enormous number of chemical reactions, synthetic
  methods,
• purification methods, etc.

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Course Objectives (cont.)

• Not easy (cont.) !
• Relevant information may be buried in .
• - one of over 100,000 scientific journals
• - one of several million patents .
• - a conference paper
• - a dissertation (M.Phil./Ph.D. thesis or
  equivalent)
• - compendia of data or properties
• - a review or technical report
• - in an abstract of the original article in
  Chemical
• Abstracts or similar abstracting
  service
• Relevant information may be in English,
  Chinese,
• Japanese, German, French, Italian, Spanish,
  Russian,
• Source may be hard copy or electronic

Where do we start?
Invited Guest Lecturer Mr. Steve
Yip http//library.ust.hk/guides/chem391.html