X-Ray Crystallography : ICSD (Inorganic)
About ICSD
ICSD is the most comprehensive database on fully determined inorganic crystal structures
- Citation data: publication title, journal reference(s), author names
- Structure description: Structural formula, compositions, ANX formulae, structure types
- Time coverage: 1913–present
- Updated semiannually
Compounds covered:
- 8,000 – 10,000 new and modified entries per year
- 1,481 crystal structures of the elements
- 25,512 records for binary compounds
- 47,935 records for ternary compounds
- 48,158 records for quarternary and quintenary compounds
- About 95,000 entries (71.7%) have been assigned a structure type.
- Database contains about 132,000 entries
Searching Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD)
Login
Licensed for use by UW-Madison faculty, staff, students
Basics
Begin by filling in only two or three search boxes. Add more search parameters if search results are too large.
- Click ADVANCED SEARCH & RETRIEVE under NAVIGATION on the left side of screen.
- Click desired search category. Example : CHEMISTRY
- Type data in one or more search boxes.
- Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.
NOTE: CLEAR query before beginning a new search unless you wish to combine queries. Otherwise, queries are automatically combined.
Truncating Terms
Words in the TITLE OF ARTICLE field are automatically left-truncated and right-truncated.
Example: conduct (BIBLIOGRAPHY: TITLE OF ARTICLE search retrieves conductors, nonsuperconductor, superconductivity, superconductors, etc.)
Proximity Searching
Only available in AUTHOR. Use quotation marks to find last name, first initial in that order.
Example: "simon, a"
Combining Search Types
Combine multiple search types.
Example: COMPOSITION: Pb Cu in a CHEMISTRY search plus CRYSTAL SYSTEM: hexagonal in a SYMMETRY search.
Elements Searching
- Click CHEMISTRY under NAVIGATION.
- Click in COMPOSITION search box.
- Type element symbol(s).
- Click in NUMBER OF ELEMENTS search box and type 2 to limit to binary compounds.
- Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.
Formula Searching
- Click CHEMISTRY under NAVIGATION.
- Click in FORMULA search box.
- Type structural formula.
Example: Cu6 O8 (Retrieves Cu8 Y O8 Cl, Cu6 In.98 O8 Cl, Pb Cu6 O8, etc.) - Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.
Chemical, Mineral, or Group Name Searching
- Click CHEMISTRY under NAVIGATION.
- Click in MINERAL NAME search box.
- (Optional) Click BROWSE DHTML (magnifying glass) to open a BROWSE SEARCH FIELD window on the right side of screen to browse mineral names.
- Click term in browse list to transfer to search box.
- Type mineral name.
- Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.
Author Searching
- Click BIBLIOGRAPHY under NAVIGATION.
- Type author's last name in AUTHORS search box.
- (Optional) Click BROWSE DHTML (magnifying glass) to open a BROWSE SEARCH FIELD window on the right side of screen to browse author names.
- Click term in browse list to transfer to search box.
- Type author last name followed by comma. Use quotation marks if searching for last name and first initial.
- (Optional) Replace unknown letters by a space or an exact number of underscores.
Example: "m_ _ller, m" (Retrieves M. Moeller, M.H Moeller, M.H. Mueller, etc.) - Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.
Publication Year Searching
- Click BIBLIOGRAPHY under NAVIGATION.
- Click in YEARS search box.
- Type year(s) or year range. Note: The use of space implies OR.
Example: 2000 2005-2009 (Retrieves publications from 2000 or from 2005 through 2009) - Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.
Display
- Click the box to the left of the record.
- Click SHOW DETAILED VIEW.
- Under DETAILSs, click content to expand or click EXPLAND ALL.
Detailed information on the ICSD may be found in the scientific manual.