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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)

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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.

  1. Click ADVANCED SEARCH & RETRIEVE under NAVIGATION on the left side of screen.
  2. Click desired search category. Example : CHEMISTRY
  3. Type data in one or more search boxes.
  4. 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

  1. Click CHEMISTRY under NAVIGATION.
  2. Click in COMPOSITION search box.
  3. Type element symbol(s).
  4. Click in NUMBER OF ELEMENTS search box and type 2 to limit to binary compounds.
  5. Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.

Formula Searching

  1. Click CHEMISTRY under NAVIGATION.
  2. Click in FORMULA search box.
  3. Type structural formula.
    Example: Cu6 O8 (Retrieves Cu8 Y O8 Cl, Cu6 In.98 O8 Cl, Pb Cu6 O8, etc.)
  4. Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.

Chemical, Mineral, or Group Name Searching

  1. Click CHEMISTRY under NAVIGATION.
  2. Click in MINERAL NAME search box.
  3. (Optional) Click BROWSE DHTML (magnifying glass) to open a BROWSE SEARCH FIELD window on the right side of screen to browse mineral names.
  4. Click term in browse list to transfer to search box.
  5. Type mineral name.
  6. Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.

Author Searching

  1. Click BIBLIOGRAPHY under NAVIGATION.
  2. Type author's last name in AUTHORS search box.
  3. (Optional) Click BROWSE DHTML (magnifying glass) to open a BROWSE SEARCH FIELD window on the right side of screen to browse author names.
  4. Click term in browse list to transfer to search box.
  5. Type author last name followed by comma. Use quotation marks if searching for last name and first initial.
  6. (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.)
  7. Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.

Publication Year Searching

  1. Click BIBLIOGRAPHY under NAVIGATION.
  2. Click in YEARS search box.
  3. 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)
  4. Click RUN QUERY on right side of screen.

Display

  1. Click the box to the left of the record.
  2. Click SHOW DETAILED VIEW.
  3. Under DETAILSs, click content to expand or click EXPLAND ALL.

Detailed information on the ICSD may be found in the scientific manual.

Subjects: Biochemistry, Chemistry