Reaxys is a web-based tool for the retrieval of information about chemical compounds and data from published literature, including journals and patents. The information includes chemical compounds, chemical reactions, chemical properties, related bibliographic data, substance data with synthesis planning information, as well as experimental procedures from selected journals and patents. It is licensed by Elsevier. [1]
Reaxys was launched in 2009 as the successor to the CrossFire databases. It was developed to provide research chemists with access to current and historical, relevant, organic, inorganic and organometallic chemistry information, from reliable sources via an easy-to-use interface. [2]
One of the primary goals of Reaxys is to provide research chemists with access to experimentally measured data – reactions, physical, chemical or pharmacological – in one universal and factual platform. [3] Content covers organic, medicinal, synthetic, agro, fine, catalyst, inorganic and process chemistry and provides information on structures, reactions, and citations. Additional features include a synthesis planner and access to commercial availability information. There have been regular releases and enhancements to Reaxys since it was first launched, including similarity searching.
Reaxys provides links to Scopus for all matching articles and interoperability with ScienceDirect. Access to the database is subject to an annual license agreement.
The content covers more than 200 years of chemistry and has been abstracted from several thousands of journal titles, books and patents. [4] Today the data is drawn from selected journals (400 titles) and chemistry patents, and the excerption process for each reaction or substance data included needs to meet three conditions:
Journals covered include Advanced Synthesis and Catalysis, Journal of American Chemical Society, Journal of Organometallic Chemistry, Synlett and Tetrahedron.
Patents in Reaxys come from the International Patent Classes: [2]
Only a very limited number of studies compared Reaxys with other databases, that provide chemical search functionality, such as SciFinder, ChEMBL, PubChem and Questel-Orbit. For example, the most comprehensive study published in 2020 by researchers from the University of Sydney concluded, that "Reaxys is definitely the first choice, due to both its wealth of data and its precise search facilities...but for less common data and spectra SciFinder contains often more information than Reaxys. PubChem should also be included, not only because of its size and accessibility... Reaxys has well over 100 times the number of experimental property data points <as SciFinder>... In the case of Reaxys and SciFinder, the natural language query algorithms in Reaxys are displayable, but in SciFinder the algorithms are proprietary and not available." [5] [6]
A chemist is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe the properties they study in terms of quantities, with detail on the level of molecules and their component atoms. Chemists carefully measure substance proportions, chemical reaction rates, and other chemical properties. In Commonwealth English, pharmacists are often called chemists.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to chemistry:
In chemistry, many authors consider an organic compound to be any chemical compound that contains carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds, although the definition of "organic" versus "inorganic" varies from author to author, and is a topic of debate. For example, methane is considered organic, but whether some other carbon-containing compounds are organic or inorganic varies from author to author, for example halides of carbon without carbon-hydrogen bonds, and certain compounds of carbon with nitrogen and oxygen, which are generally considered inorganic.
Organic chemistry is a subdiscipline within chemistry involving the scientific study of the structure, properties, and reactions of organic compounds and organic materials, i.e., matter in its various forms that contain carbon atoms. Study of structure determines their structural formula. Study of properties includes physical and chemical properties, and evaluation of chemical reactivity to understand their behavior. The study of organic reactions includes the chemical synthesis of natural products, drugs, and polymers, and study of individual organic molecules in the laboratory and via theoretical study.
In chemistry, chemical synthesis is the artificial execution of chemical reactions to obtain one or several products. This occurs by physical and chemical manipulations usually involving one or more reactions. In modern laboratory uses, the process is reproducible and reliable.
Robert Burns Woodward was an American organic chemist. He is considered by many to be the most preeminent synthetic organic chemist of the twentieth century, having made many key contributions to the subject, especially in the synthesis of complex natural products and the determination of their molecular structure. He also worked closely with Roald Hoffmann on theoretical studies of chemical reactions. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1965.
CAS is a division of the American Chemical Society. It is a source of chemical information. CAS is located in Columbus, Ohio, United States.
Total synthesis is the complete chemical synthesis of a complex molecule, often a natural product, from simple, commercially-available precursors. It usually refers to a process not involving the aid of biological processes, which distinguishes it from semisynthesis. Syntheses may sometimes conclude at a precursor with further known synthetic pathways to a target molecule, in which case it is known as a formal synthesis. Total synthesis target molecules can be natural products, medicinally-important active ingredients, known intermediates, or molecules of theoretical interest. Total synthesis targets can also be organometallic or inorganic, though these are rarely encountered. Total synthesis projects often require a wide diversity of reactions and reagents, and subsequently requires broad chemical knowledge and training to be successful.
The Beilstein database is the largest database in the field of organic chemistry, in which compounds are uniquely identified by their Beilstein Registry Number. The database covers the scientific literature from 1771 to the present and contains experimentally validated information on millions of chemical reactions and substances from original scientific publications. The electronic database was created from Handbuch der Organischen Chemie, founded by Friedrich Konrad Beilstein in 1881, but has appeared online under a number of different names, including Crossfire Beilstein. Since 2009, the content has been maintained and distributed by Elsevier Information Systems in Frankfurt under the product name "Reaxys".
The National Academy of Sciences Award in Chemical Sciences is awarded for innovative research in the chemical sciences that in the broadest sense contributes to a better understanding of the natural sciences and to the benefit of humanity.
MDL Information Systems, Inc. was a provider of R&D informatics products for the life sciences and chemicals industries. The company was launched as a computer-aided drug design firm in January 1978 in Hayward, California. The company was acquired by Symyx Technologies, Inc. in 2007. Subsequently Accelrys merged with Symyx. The Accelrys name was retained for the combined company. In 2014 Accelrys was acquired by Dassault Systemes. The Accelrys business unit was renamed BIOVIA.
The Science Citation Index Expanded – previously titled Science Citation Index – is a citation index originally produced by the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) and created by Eugene Garfield.
The Willard Gibbs Award, presented by the Chicago Section of the American Chemical Society, was established in 1910 by William A. Converse (1862–1940), a former Chairman and Secretary of the Chicago Section of the society and named for Professor Josiah Willard Gibbs (1839–1903) of Yale University. Gibbs, whose formulation of the Phase Rule founded a new science, is considered by many to be the only American-born scientist whose discoveries are as fundamental in nature as those of Newton and Galileo.
In 1957, the research organization of the Chemicals Department of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company was renamed Central Research Department, beginning the history of the premier scientific organization within DuPont and one of the foremost industrial laboratories devoted to basic science. Located primarily at the DuPont Experimental Station and Chestnut Run, in Wilmington, Delaware, it has expanded to include laboratories in Geneva, Switzerland, Seoul, South Korea, Shanghai, China, and India(Hyderabad). In January, 2016 a major layoff marked the end of the organization.
A chemical substance is a form of matter having constant chemical composition and characteristic properties. Some references add that chemical substance cannot be separated into its constituent elements by physical separation methods, i.e., without breaking chemical bonds. Chemical substances can be simple substances, chemical compounds, or alloys.
Physical organic chemistry, a term coined by Louis Hammett in 1940, refers to a discipline of organic chemistry that focuses on the relationship between chemical structures and reactivity, in particular, applying experimental tools of physical chemistry to the study of organic molecules. Specific focal points of study include the rates of organic reactions, the relative chemical stabilities of the starting materials, reactive intermediates, transition states, and products of chemical reactions, and non-covalent aspects of solvation and molecular interactions that influence chemical reactivity. Such studies provide theoretical and practical frameworks to understand how changes in structure in solution or solid-state contexts impact reaction mechanism and rate for each organic reaction of interest.
Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i. is one of the six institutes belonging to the CAS chemical sciences section and is a research centre in a variety of fields such as chemistry, biochemistry, catalysis and environment.
The Chemical Database Service is an EPSRC-funded mid-range facility that provides UK academic institutions with access to a number of chemical databases. It has been hosted by the Royal Society of Chemistry since 2013, before which it was hosted by Daresbury Laboratory.
Cristina Nevado is a Spanish chemist who is a Professor of Organic Chemistry at the University of Zurich. Her research considers chemical synthesis and organometallic reactions. She received the 2021 Margaret Faul Women in Chemistry Award.
Walter (W.) Dean Harman is an American chemist, academic, author and researcher. He is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Chemistry at the University of Virginia.