Major Expansion Announced for PC Database on Chemical Reactions in Solutions

An important research tool for environmental scientists, research chemists, pharmacologists and others in the health care field has been expanded with new information for modeling chemical reactions in solution. The NDRL/NIST Solution Kinetics Database, Version 2.0, is available for personal computers from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

The computerized database can relay information quickly on chemical reaction rates. It holds information on the rates of 10,800 free radicals derived from more than 14,000 experimental determinations; searches can be made for 7,800 chemical species that are reactants or products.

These data are necessary, for example, in predicting the rates of chemical processes including free radicals. This information can be used to design chemical processes, to study pollution in the environment and to measure the effects of radiation treatments. The data also can be used to study antioxidants for the development of pharmaceuticals and food preservatives.

The updated Solution Kinetics Database uses the same software as the widely used NIST Chemical Kinetics Database for gas phase reactions. It provides the bench scientist with fast, easy access to chemical rate data for free radical processes involving primary radicals from water, inorganic radicals and carbon-centered radicals in aqueous solution, and organic peroxyl radicals in various solvents. In a few minutes, users can examine all available data for many different reactions, compare the rate constants to their own data, generate files for inclusion in a modeling program or produce literature citations that can be used in a word processor.

The NDRL/NIST Solution Kinetics Database was compiled from the available printed literature through 1992 by the Radiation Chemistry Data Center, Radiation Laboratory, University of Notre Dame. The center is part of the National Standard Reference Data System established in 1963. Since 1968, the NIST Standard Reference Data Program has been responsible, under an act of Congress, for coordinating the evaluation of numerical data that describe the chemical and physical properties of well-defined substances.

The NDRL/NIST Solution Kinetics Database, Version 2.0, is available for $265. It is designed for any MS DOS or PC DOS computer using DOS 2.1 or later and at least 640K memory; free memory must be at least 400KB plus 20KB if running under Windows . Upgrades are $75. Periodic updates are planned.

To order NIST Standard Reference Database 40: NDRL/NIST Solution Kinetics, Version 2.0, contact the Standard Reference Data Program, A320 Physics Building, NIST, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899, (301) 975-2208, fax: (301) 926-0416, e-mail: SRDATA [at] enh.nist.gov (SRDATA[at]enh[dot]nist[dot]gov) (via Internet).

As a non-regulatory agency of the Commerce Department's Technology Administration, NIST promotes U.S. economic growth by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards.