Besides the CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (see below), there are a number of sources which specialize in units of measure and other basic information for scientific calculation. Examples include:
Free chemical structure database providing fast access to over 30 million structures, properties and associated information. By integrating and linking compounds from more than 470 data sources, ChemSpider enables researchers to discover the most comprehensive view of freely available chemical data from a single online search. Owned by the Royal Society of Chemistry.
Electronic version of the classic standard reference work for basic chemical and physical property data. Browsable by the table of contents, or searchable by keyword, or by ranges of property values. In many cases, the data tables are "live" and may be sorted by any column in the table.
Current edition of the Merck Index, covering a wide variety of drugs and pharmaceuticals. Describes common organic chemicals and laboratory reagents, as well as naturally occurring substances and plants. Includes information on the elements and inorganic chemicals, compounds of agricultural significance, and endogenous substances and biological agents. Most articles include basic physical properties, toxicity information and references to syntheses and uses. There are also tables of named reactions in chemistry and other useful information.
Electronic collection of several major reference works for chemistry and related sciences from Chapman and Hall/CRC Press. Fully sub-structure searchable. Note: Structure searching requires a free browser plug-in, which may not yet be installed on UCSB Library workstations. The Handbook of Chemistry & Physics and Polymers, A Property Database are fully searchable and offer the ability to produce tables customized to the user's preferences.
Titles include:
A wide-ranging, authoritative source of information on chemicals and chemical processes, with detailed references for each article. Includes the current Fourth Edition, with some articles updated each year.
Provides access to a wide range of handbooks and other reference works in engineering (chemical, civil, electrical, mechanical, materials and biotechnology), chemistry and biochemistry, earth and environmental sciences among other areas. You may search within a particular work, or across the entire Knovel collection. Searching may be done by keyword, or by numeric data ranges.
Some guides to reactions, like Organic Syntheses and Inorganic Syntheses provide detailed saftey information for the reactions they describe.
Toxicological Profiles from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (U.S. Public Health Service) contain over toxicological information on over 150 compounds. Rigorously peer-reviewed, covers the toxicological effects of hazardous substances, chemicals, and compounds. Profiles include an examination, summary, and interpretation of available toxicological and epidemiological data evaluations on the hazardous substance.