Since 1909 Houben–Weyl has been used by chemists working in academia and industry. This influential work along with its electronic edition, available online through Science of Synthesis, has been made possible by the worldwide collaboration of renowned chemists including several Nobel laureates. In order to mark the Houben–Weyl centenary, 100 selected articles from Houben-Weyl, Science of Synthesis, SYNLETT and SYNTHESIS covering a variety of themes, including stereoselective synthesis, fluorine, peptides, heterocyclic and organometallic chemistry, have been collocated and can be downloaded for free during the course of this year on the Thieme Chemistry website.
The first topic covered in March 2009 is fluorine. Both Houben–Weyl and Science of Synthesis exhaustively cover fluorine compounds. Alone, fluorine gas is extremely poisonous but when combined with other atoms, it forms compounds that are versatile and have consequently found a variety of applications. These applications include solvents, anticancer agents, agricultural chemicals, dyes and polymers. The key contributions from this seminal work which are being made available for download have been chosen by experts and should help assist the organic chemist in understanding some of the many different aspects of fluorine chemistry.
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“We are delighted to be able to make freely available a sample of the content from Houben–Weyl and Science of Synthesis so that a wider audience can begin to appreciate both the high quality of the author contributions, and, the relevance of the science covered in the series to research in organic chemistry today. We are also happy to be able to offer selected SYNTHESIS and SYNLETT journal articles, which relate to the chosen themes, for free download,” said Dr. M. Fiona Shortt de Hernandez, Managing Editor, Science of Synthesis/Houben–Weyl.
Houben–Weyl continues to be appreciated by chemists from around the globe as a well-structured, reliable, and comprehensive source of information. With 700,000 references dating back to the 1800s, this 160 volume 160,000 page work holds 580,000 structures, and 146,000 experimental procedures. The electronic format is available as part of Science of Synthesis, a reference work for preparative methods in synthetic chemistry, developed by Thieme in cooperation with InfoChem.
Nobel laureate and Science of Synthesis Editorial Board Member, Professor Ryoji Noyori, at Nagoya University, in Nagoya, Japan, says, “Science of Synthesis is the most widely used resource on organic synthesis in both academia and industry. It was completed after a 15 year international collaboration in which chemists in many countries in Europe, America and Asia were involved.”
One hundred years after the first edition was published by Weyl, Houben–Weyl and Science of Synthesis together form an influential service that is prized by scientists and researchers worldwide.
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