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Searching the Chemical Data Field

The Chemical Data field contains controlled data on the significant substances and materials systems discussed in source documents. Organic substances are not covered.

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The Chemical Data field contains controlled data on the significant substances and materials systems discussed in source documents. Organic substances are not covered.

To search this field:

1. Enter the name of a substance using chemical notation) in the search box. Use chemical notation. For example: O/sur

2. Append a role to the substance name, prefaced by a forward slash.

There are three basic roles. Each substance is assigned one of these:

• Element /el
• Binary system (a chemical substance containing exactly two elements) /bin
• System with 3 or more components /ss

Additionally, any of four special roles may be assigned where appropriate:

• Adsorbate or sorbate /ads
• Dopant /dop
• Interface system /int
• Surface or substrate /sur

When a substance is assigned one of the special roles, it will also be automatically assigned the appropriate basic role. You have the choice to search for a substance by a special role or basic role.

You cannot combine the names of chemical substances with search operators in the chemical search fields on the Search page. However, you can use search operators and search for multiple chemical substances in Advanced Search.

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Chemical Data Examples

• Na/el
• CU/ss
• Cu2O/bin

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Search Tip

The search engine does not differentiate between upper case and lower case letters, and so it treats Co (Cobalt) and CO (Carbon Monoxide) the same. You have to use the roles and rely on the context of your search to distinguish such differences.

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Did You Know ...

You cannot combine the names of chemical substances with search operators in the chemical search fields on the Search page. However, you can use search operators and search for multiple chemical substances in Advanced Search.