Chemistry

The Cambridge Structural Database is produced by the Cambridge Crystallographic Data Centre, a registered charity in the United Kingdom with the mission of collecting and making available high-quality crystal structure and structural chemistry information.  CSD is the largest repository for small-molecule organic and metal-organic crystal structures, with more 800,000 entries. Along with data about the crystal structure, each entry includes chemical/physical property data and associated journal article reference.

CSD has long been a data repository in which chemists, engineers, and materials scientists have deposited their crystal structure data, and many journals require deposition in the CSD as part of the article submission process. The database currently contains X-ray and neutron diffraction analyses for carbon-containing compounds composed of up to 1000 atoms. Types of substances represented include:

• Organics
• Organometallics
• Metal complexes
• Compounds of main group elements
• Peptides of up to 24 residues
• Mono-, di-, and tri-nucleotides

The database is searchable by structure, text, or the journal article that the crystal structure accompanies, and it permits substructure searching. Entries for each compound include:

• Complete literature citations (title, author, journal, etc.)
• Compound information (name, formula, and structural representation in two or three dimensions)
• Textual information (details of disorder, non-standard experimental conditions, absolute configuration, etc.)
• Crystallographic information (atomic coordinates, cell parameters, space group, unit cell information, etc.)

UNF users can access the Cambridge Structural Database two ways:

1. Using the web based version of the database, WebCSD On Campus Access Only
2. Downloading and running the powerful CSD software on their own computers. Please contact the Chemistry liaison for more information.