100 volumes of IUPAC’s Solubility Data Series

David Shaw

doi:10.1515/ci-2015-0123

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100 volumes of IUPAC’s Solubility Data Series

David Shaw

Published/Copyright: February 2, 2015

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From the journal Chemistry International Volume 37 Issue 1

The year 2014 marked the publication of Volume 100 of IUPAC’s Solubility Data Series. Since publication began in 1979, each volume has presented an exhaustive compilation from the published chemical literature of experimentally determined solubility data for a group of related and chemically well defined systems, such as methane in liquids (vol. 27/28, 1987), liquid and solid hydrocarbons with water and seawater (vol. 81, 2005), or potassium sulfate in water (vol. 93, 2012). Whenever two or more sets of independent experimental data have been reported in the primary chemical literature and are judged to be free of obvious errors, the data are critically evaluated in an effort to guide the user to the most reliable data.

A Symposium during the August 2014 Annual Meeting of the American Chemical Society marked the publication of 100 volumes and looked forward to continuation of IUPAC’s Solubility Data Project, both in its current print form as articles in the Journal of Physical and chemical Reference Data and in electronic formats. Presentations at the symposium covered a range of topics including the history and evolution of the project, contemporary issues related to the compilation and evaluation of solubility data, and new approaches to the dissemination of solubility and other equilibrium data.

The work of data compilation and evaluation necessary for the preparation of each volume is carried out by an international group of experts operating under a set of guidelines that ensure uniformity in the approach to the work and format of the volumes. Participants in the Solubility Data Project have met annually since the mid-1970s. In the early years of the project international communication was slow, difficult and expensive. Although global web-based communication is now convenient, participants still find it valuable to meet face to face each year.

Presenters of the oral communications in The IUPAC Solubility Data Series: 100 volumes of Solubility Data Online. Back row from left to right: William Acree, Mark Salomon, Stuart Chalk, Allan Harvey; Front row from left to the right Glenn Hefter, Clara Magalhães, Johan Jacquemin, and Earle Waghorne

The requirements for compilation are straightforward: an exhaustive search of the published primary chemical literature for published experimental data, together with a summary of experimental methods and estimates of experimental error where those are provided in the published work or can be estimated by the compiler. Solubility values from review articles and handbooks are not used unless they can be traced to original experimental work.

The guidelines for critical evaluation of the data allow flexibility based on expert scientific judgment. Flexibility is required to accommodate both the range of data precision that exists over chemical systems studied and the considerable variation in theoretical frameworks for data interpretation between, say, gases in nonpolar liquids and salts in water. But in every evaluation the goal is to indicate the reliability and precision of solubility data and to clearly explain the evaluation method used to reach the assessment presented.

CI readers are invited to view the related article published recently in Chemical Information Bulletin Vol. 66, No. 4: Winter 2014, online at http://bulletin.acscinf.org/node/668. Detailed information about the Solubility Data Series, including lists of volumes (published and in preparation) as well as guidelines for the preparation and use of these volumes is available at www.iupac.org/body/502. Suggestions and proposals for collaboration on future volumes are always welcome.

www.iupac.org/project/2014-012-2-500

Online erschienen: 2015-2-2

Erschienen im Druck: 2015-1-1

Articles in the same Issue

https://doi.org/10.1515/ci-2015-0123