chemistry on the go review of chemistry apps on smartphones

8/10/2019 Chemistry on the Go Review of Chemistry Apps on Smartphones

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Chemistry on the Go: Review of Chemistry Apps on Smartphones

Diana Libman and Ling Huang *

Chemistry Department, Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York 11549, United States

*S Supporting Information

ABSTRACT: Chemistry-related software, or chemistry apps , on hand-held and portabletouch-controlled computers such as smartphones and iPods are seeing dramatic growth with increasing adoption rates. This review covers about 30 popular and mostly free appsthat can be used to learn chemistry and to serve as reference or research tools. The targetaudience includes students in high school, college, and graduate school, chemicalprofessionals, and teachers.

KEYWORDS: First-year Undergraduate/General, Upper-division Undergraduate, Graduate Education/Research, Interdiciplinary/Multidiciplinary, Computer Based Learning, Internet/Web-Based learning

W ith the drop in prices and ever-increasing computingability and video processing power, smartphones are becoming widespread among high school and college students.Nielsen reports that between 2009 and 2011 smartphoneownership for 1317 year olds went from 16% to 40% and for1824 year olds from 23% to 53%.1 Smartphones can serve aspowerful and convenient educational tools on a mobileplatform, which potentially encourages learning. A study by StudyBlue found that students who used a mobile applicationto study spent on average 40 min or more a week on studying.2The iOS and Android platforms both provide a multitude of applications that can be downloaded directly onto the phone.These mobile applications, or apps , have a wide range of functionalities and cover many disciplines. The rapid develop-ment of cloud computing technology also speeds up theadoption of these mobile apps as chemical education tools orcollaborative learning platforms,3 as more programs can beaccessed through the cloud and large amount of chemicaldata or structural information can be stored in the cloud .Collaboration through the interconnection of multiplechemistry apps was recently demonstrated as a new chemo-informatics tool to increase work efficiency,4 which can beutilized to raise the chemistry learning experience to a new level.

A recent paper by Williams and Pence5 presented the bene ts of using smartphones and similar Internet capabledevices in the classroom. In two other articles , Williams et al.noted several specic apps for drug discovery 6 and highlightedChemspider app as a powerful hand-held chemical searchengine.7 Several universities are beginning to implement mobilechemistry into their curricula,8 there are also man y universitiesthat provide online guides to mobile applications.8 10 One Web

site describes a handful of paid apps that are suitable forprofessional chemists or chemical engineers8 whereas theothers put more emphasis on the convenient access tochemistry journals online.9,10 There is even a ChemicalMahjong game app to make learning chemistry more fun andinteresting.11 Diff erentiating from existing articles, our review intends to cover the majority of the free and popular appsavailable on smartphones or iPods (both referred to as smartphones from here on) with focuses on disciplines(Table 1), functionalities (Figure 1), and target users (Table 2).

The applications are discussed separately, based on the twomost popular mobile operating systems: Android and iOS (seethe list of apps in alphabetical order in the SupportingInformation). The applications listed are the ones that werefound to have the highest user ratings, at least 3 out of 5 stars,and all of the applications are either free or less than a dollar.Most of the apps are available for iPads and Android apps fortablets. This review discusses apps that are available onsmartphones, as these are more prevalent, aff ordable, andportable than comparable tablets or laptops. In addition, only mobile phone apps or iPod touch apps are discussed here as therelevant devices are much smaller and easier to carry around, which potentially increases their availability in classrooms,laboratories, and school campuses as people already have tocarry their phone and the adoption of smartphones is increasingeveryday.1

With this review, we intend to cover a broader range of freeapps that are easily accessible and that could make a broaderimpact. We have tested all the apps discussed here to give thereaders an objective opinion on the performance of each. Some

Published: February 13, 2013

Article

pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc

2013 American Chemical Society andDivision of Chemical Education, Inc. 320 dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed300329e | J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90, 320325
http://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_3/pubs.acs.org/jchemeduchttp://localhost/var/www/apps/conversion/tmp/scratch_3/pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc


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of the apps presented here carry a signicant technical learningcurve, which can be explored to a deeper level. Eff orts have

been made to provide a succinct review of each app without theintention to cover everything available or remotely relevant.

Table 1. Chemistry Apps by Disciplines

Discipline Android iOSGeneral and

Inorganic AtomDroid, Chemistry Cheat Sheets, Chemistry Mobile, Convert Pad, Molecular

Viewer 3D, Periodic Droid, Periodic Table, W Chemistry Handbook iElements, The Chemical Touch Lite

Organic AtomDroid, Chemistry By Designa , ChemDoodle Mobilea , Molecular Viewer3D, W Chemistry Handbook

Chemistry By Designa , ChemDoodle Mobilea , Green Solvent,Molecules, Named Reactions, Organic Name Reactions

Analytical Chemistry Helper, EMD PTEa , PubChem Mobile, W Chemistry Handbook,ChemSpidera

EMD PTEa , ChemMobi (by Accelrys Inc.), ChemSpidera , GCCalc, Green Solvent, LC Calc, MolPrime Molecules

Physical Chemistry Mobile, Convert Pad, W Chemistry Handbook Insensitive (by Klaus Boldt)Biochemistry AtomDroid, ESmol, Molecular Viewer 3D, NDKmol, Promegaa Amino Acid Tutor, Buff er Calc, Promegaa , Genetic Code

a Denotes apps available on both Android and iOS.

Figure 1. All logos are reproduced with permission from Dr. Silas Cook (Indiana University) for

Organic Named Reactions

, from Jon Njardarson(Arizona University) for Chemistry by Design , from David Pellon (Nad's Tech) for Chemistry Cheat Sheets , from David Thaisrivongs(Synthetiq Solutions) for Named Reactions , from Ivan Antonov for Genetic Code and AA Tutor , from Kevin Theisen (iChemLabs) for ChemDoodle , from Alex Clark (Molecular Materials Informatics) for MolPrime and Green Solvent , from Brad Larson (Sunset Lake Software)for Molecules , from Johannes Dieterich (CCB Goettingen) for Atomdroid , from Adam Hogan for Molecular Viewer 3D and Chemistry Helper , from Takanori Nakane for ESmol and NDKMol , from ACS for ACS Mobile , from Hongping Liang for PubChem, from David Wakstein (Accelrys Software) for ChemMobi , from Dr. David Sharpe (RSC) for ChemSpider , from Andrew Zen for Chemistry Mobile , from Jim Simon (Agilent) for LC Calc and GC Calc , from Paulette Goldweber (Wiley) for Buff er Calc , from Maciek Smuga-Otto (Promega) for

Promega , from Sunny Moon for ConvertPad , from Dr. Sebastian Fleischhauer (Merck KGaA) for EMD PTE , from Michael Harrison(Socratica, LLC) for Periodic Table , from Max So derstro m for iElements , and from Chris Fennell for TCT Lite .

Table 2. Chemistry Apps by Target User Groups

Level Android iOS

High School EMD PTEa , Periodic Droid,a Promega EMD PTEa , iElements, Molecules, Promegaa , The Chemical TouchLite

Undergraduate Intro-ductory Courses

ChemDoodle Mobilea , Atomdroid , Chemistry Cheat Sheets, Chemistry Helper, ConvertPad, EMD PTEa , Periodic Droid, Periodic Table, W Chemistry Handbook

Amino Acid Tutor, ChemDoodle Mobilea , EMD PTEa , iElements,Genetic Code, Molecules

Undergraduate Upper-Level Courses

Atomdroid, Chem Doodle Mobilea , Chemistry Helper, Chemistry B y Designa ,Chemistry Mobile, ConvertPad, Molecular Viewer 3D, Promegaa ,PubChem, W Chemistry Handbook, ChemSpidera

Buff er Calc, Green Solvent, ChemMobi,a ChemSpider, MolPrime,Named Reactions, Organic Named Reactions,a Promega, ChemDoodle Mobile,a Chemistry By Design

Graduate Level andProfessional Chemist

ACS Mobilea , Atomdroid, Chem Doodle Mobilea , Chemistry By Designa ,ESMol, NDKMol, Molecular Viewer 3D, Promegaa , PubChem

ACS Mo bilea , Buff er Calc, Chem Doodle Mobilea , Chemistry By Designa , ChemMobi, ChemSpider, GC Calc, Green Solvent,Insensitive, LC Calc, MolPrime, Promegaa

a Denotes apps available on both Android and iOS.

Journal of Chemical Education Article

dx.doi.org/10.1021/ed300329e | J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90, 320325321


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INCORPORATING APPS FOR TEACHING ANDLEARNING CHEMISTRY

Molecular Viewer Apps

With the dramatic improvement of graphics and CPUcomputing power on smartphone devices, the rotation andrendering of three-dimensional (3-D) molecular structures can

be easily and smoothly achieved on iPhone, iPod touch, and Android phones with the one-nger swiping or two-ngerzooming motions. Five years ago, these functions were reservedfor high-end graphics processing workstations with sophisti-cated software engines costing thousands of dollars. Today appssuch as Atomdroid 12 (Android, by CCB Goettingen) and Molecules (iOS, by Sunset Lake Software) can createstunning and interactive 3-D renderings of molecular structures.Both apps show ball-and-stick models of energy-minimized 3-Dstructures as default.

Molecular viewer apps can be a useful tool in the classroom.For example, in an organic chemistry class, as a supplement tomolecular model sets. The advantage here is that a student caneasily switch between viewing a space-lling model or a ball and

stick model. The other advantage is that larger molecules can be used. Similarly, these types of apps can be used in biochemistry and general chemistry to look at structures. Thesemodels can also be used for drug-discovery research,particularly in the investigation of the binding between a drugmolecule and a target protein. The viewer tools can be used toevaluate the binding pocket and specically the type of intermolecular force involved in binding (i.e., pipi stackingand hydrogen-bonding).

Molecules can display both proteins and DNA. It alsocomes equipped with a search function that utilizes PubChemand Protein Data Bank (PDB). Once the molecule is found, itcan be downloaded directly onto the device. Several of the Android molecular viewer apps also share the search and

download functionalities. In some cases, app users can draw their custom molecules in a desktop or laptop computer andupload their structures to the smartphones for display andrendering. Care must be taken to ensure the compatibility of le formats.Besides ball-and stick models, Atomdroid (Figure 2 left)

can also display skeletal models along with calculated totalenergy. Many of the display parameters can be ne-tuned tooptimize the presentation and maneuvering speed. In our

Android test device, the default speed of two-nger zoom-incould be too sensitive to complete, making the moleculedisappear on the screen. Several Android apps such as Atomdroid , Molecular Viewer 3D (Android, by AdamHogan), ESmol , and NDKmol (Figure 2 right, Android, both by Biochem_fan) can download protein les from PDBand display the complex protein structures with stunning detail.This could be a valuable tool for teaching protein structures andinteractions between small molecules and proteins.

ESmol can convert polymer structures into beautiful ribbonmodels. It is also able to show nucleic acids in strands, ladder,or skeletal models. Besides biomolecules such as DNA, RNA,and proteins ESmol can display polymers and crystals inpacking mode. If the le size is bigger than 3 MB, NDKmol

from the same app developer should be used in the place of ESmol . Both can handle PDB le formats and load MDLMOL (=SDF) format from SD card or directly from PubChem. Molecular Viewer 3D works with PDB, CML, MDL SD,Sybyl Mol2 le formats. The app can display custom-drawnstructures or downloaded molecules along with 243 library molecules. In our tests, the custom-drawn structures, however,often resulted in app crashes possibly due to incompatible leformats. A free and open-source software called Avogadro 13could be used to convert le formats from Chemdraw orChemsketch to improve the compatibility with molecular viewer apps.

Equipped with the molecular viewer apps, students canaccess simple or complex structures from a device in theirpockets and manipulate the structures to better understand bonding and steric eff ects. The convenient viewing can be usedto assign NMR chemical shifts and to study the reactive sitesfor organic chemistry. In one of our research projects, forexample, Atomdroid and Molecules apps are used to predictthe change in NMR chemical shift values when there are subtlechanges of derivatives on core structures of syntheticcannabinoids, all of which were used as designer drugs . With apps such as

ESmol

and

NDKmol, biomolecules become easier to touch and feel as large molecularstructures can be enlarged for detailed observations, which ishard to achieve with physical models.Study Guides and Reference Apps

Heavy textbooks, chemistry dictionaries, and reference bookssuch as the CRC Handbook are quickly becoming history ashand-held devices such as smartphones are changing the way students study, memorize, review, and utilize chemicalknowledge. Several apps address the need for portable devicesas study guides or easy chemistry helpers. The following appsnot only help high school or college students to cram forchemistry exams, but also serve as a reminder or reference forgraduate students and experienced chemists and professionals.For instance, a general chemistry student studying for anexam can pull out a smartphone and use W Chemistry Handbook (Android, by Dilthiumlabs) to quickly review the basic concepts such as common inorganic cations and anionscovered in general chemistry. The student can also promptly check the virtual handbook in a general chemistry lab toretrieve a p K a value, a molecular weight, or a density forexperimental calculations.

Chemistry Cheat Sheets Free (Android, by NadsTech.-com) covers the important topics in general chemistry andorganic chemistry in a concise fashion with many summary tables and gures. One major drawback is the required

Figure 2. Examples of the 3-D molecular structures on Atomdroid

(left; reproduced with permission from Adam Hogan) and NDKmol (right, reproduced with permission from Biochem_fan).




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cumbersome maneuvering on pages because the gures andtables are scanned les that have been uploaded into the app.This presents a problem when zooming in and out of the le. Another inconvenience is the lack of a search function.

Chemistry By Design 14 (Android & iOS) summarizes thetotal synthesis routes of 337 compounds, most of which are of pharmaceutical interests. The routes are categorized by name,author, year, and drugs can be searched within the app. The appalso provides blacked out reaction conditions and intermediateproducts for quizzing. It is a useful app for advanced organicsynthesis students, graduate students, and pharmaceuticalindustry professionals.

Compared to Chemistry Cheat Sheets , W Chemistry Handbook is a more comprehensive reference app for thereviewing of basic concepts and techniques. It is carefully separated into six major categories (Figure 3 , right) with many

subcategories that cover most entry-level knowledge in all branches of chemistry. For example, there are subsections fororganic compounds, salts, inorganic acids, gases, and biomolecules under chemicals . Chemical, physical, andother properties of the above chemicals are listed under properties . A solution calculator is included, which helps withreinforcing quantitative skills. A handful of constants used ingeneral chemistry and physical chemistry are listed under constants . The properties of chemicals can be compared intabular format. All included information is searchable within theapp.

Other apps such as Chemistry Helper (Android, by AdamHogan) have similar functions with expanded capabilities suchas IR and NMR tables for organic functional groups, calculationand conversion tools for analytical chemistry and physicalchemistry, solubility rules for inorganic chemistry, reductionpotentials for electrochemistry, and so forth. A periodic table isalso included. Similar tools and reference are also provided in ChemMobile (Android, by Qan) app.

Amino Acid Tutor (iOS, by Ivan Antonov) is a useful appfor learning amino acids; it is essentially a quiz app. It is usedlike a set of ash cards. The app asks to identify diff erent aminoacids based on name, structure, or code. It supplements otherlearning tools in the beginning of a biochemistry class. GeneticCode (iOS, also by Ivan Antonov), is a similar type of app. Itprovides the user with the names of amino acids and the basesthat code for them. This is a well-designed reference guide thatis visually pleasing. There are multiple diff erent ways that the

amino acids are arranged. This is a great app for a student at anadvanced level because it is not self-explanatory. To utilize theapp, you have to understand the amino acid and codonconcepts. It would be useful for a student in a biochemistry class learning amino acids and codons or as a reference guide.

The stack of ashcards can usually identify a beginnerstudent of organic chemistry, and the erratic mumbling andipping over that comes with them. Today, however, a

smartphone can essentially replace that stack of ashcards. Named Reactions Lite (iOS, by Synthetiq Solutions) is aperfect example of that. When displayed with the device in the vertical orientation, it provides information on reactions,including their history, the participants, and the overall reaction.Flipping the phone horizontally provides a stack of ashcards, which can be ipped through. It is fun to use because of theinteractive features.

Another indispensible app for an organic chemistry student is Organic Named Reactions (iOS, by Indiana University). Theapp provides a quiz-like introduction of reactions. The format issimilar to index cards; the home screen shows a menu of fouroptions to choose from: reactions, mechanisms, missingreagents, and missing products. Reactions can be viewed either by name rst, by overall reaction rst, or both. This option alsocontains an index of all the reactions. This is an intuitive systemfor learning because the reactions are broken down intoseparate sections. A new student of organic chemistry canchoose to learn the names rst, or the overall reaction rst, thenmove on to learning reagents and products, and nally themechanisms. The only glitch is that there is no way to choose which reactions is going to be presented.Structure Drawing Apps With the touch screen on smartphones, 2-D molecularstructures can be drawn to precision with one or two ngers.Small molecules can be drawn on MolPrime (iOS, by Molecular Materials Informatics, Inc.), which was covered in a

previous review,5

and

ChemDoodle Mobile

(iOS & Android, by iChemLabs, LLC). ChemDoodle Mobile (Figure 4) is an

easy tool for sketching molecules to show energy-minimized 2-D structures and to calculate simple NMR spectra. NMR andproperty predictions work very well for small moleculescontaining organic elements. The drawn structures can besaved in the paid version of the app. Drawing molecularstructure on a hand-held device is often prone to mistakes atthe tapping locations, which is a constant challenge for this kindof app.

Figure 3. Screen views of the Periodic Table (left, reproduced withpermission from Socratica, LLC) and W Chemistry Handbook

(right, reproduced with permission from Dilthiumlabs) apps.

Figure 4. Acetone structure in ChemDoodle Mobile (left) and itsintegrated NMR spectra (right). Images reproduced with permissionfrom iChemLabs, LLC.




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The limited screen sizes (ranging from 34.7 in. diagonally),however, made drawing complex molecular structuresextremely challenging with these structure drawing apps. Thedrawing often requires dexterous hand maneuvers and frequentzooming in and out. For simple molecules often encountered ingeneral chemistry, these apps are suitable for the learning of bonding, molecular geometry, molecular polarity, and Lewisstructures.Periodic Table Apps

Besides Chemistry Helper and ChemMobile , there areseveral dedicated periodic table apps on both iOS and Android. EMD-PTE (by Merck KGaA), a highly rated app, works on both iOS and Android. iElements (by SusaSoftX) and TheChemical Touch Lite (by Christopher J. Fennell) are twopopular iOS apps while Periodic Droid (by DroidLa) and Periodic Table (Figure 3 left, by Socratica, LLC) are Android-exclusive.

EMD-PTE stands out with clean HD resolution and richfunctions. It carries a calculation tool of atomic weightpercentage within a compound. Every element has a history of discovery. The accompanied atomic property data are most

comprehensive among all periodic table apps. A small drawback is that the small buttons could be hard to touch correctly on asmaller screen. Overall this app has the highest rating.

Periodic Droid lists elements by atomic numbers or in theperiodic table. It comes with a quiz function for studying andreviewing various elemental properties such radii, atomic weights, symbols, physical properties, and history. Theelements can also be listed using the order of 16 diff erentproperties. Periodic Table app is tailored more towardlearning general chemistry and reinforcing various aspects of elemental periodicity.

iElements provides a good periodic table, with a lot of information on each element such as its name, symbol, atomicnumber, phase, density, melting point, boiling point, heats of

fusion and vaporization, specic heat, oxidation states,ionization energies, electronegativity, covalent, atomic, and van der Waals (VDW) radii. The app also provides a Wikipedialink that opens up in the browser. When an element is chosen,only the symbol and atomic number appear; for all otherinformation, it is necessary to click more info and an elementpage comes up. Although the element group and location isgiven and the table is color coded by type (halogen, metalloid,etc.), these colors are left to the user to gure out. This could,however, be used as an educational tool, so that students cangure out the grouping for themselves as a review.

The Chemical Touch Lite (Figure 5) is another practicalperiodic table reference. This app again gives a good amount of information on the chemical and physical properties of eachelement, including oxidation states and electronegativity. Thetable is color-coded depending on the property selected, eachproperty has its own color-coded scale. Another helpful optionis the ability to change between diff erent temperature units. Fora beginner, this table might be a bit confusing as the possibleoxidation states are not labeled clearly and the units are not very inherently obvious. This is still a good reference tool forsomeone with some familiarity with the periodic table.Research Apps

There are several chemistry reference apps beyond the simplestudy guides mentioned above. As stated before, Chemistry Helper and Chemistry Mobile can be used as reference books for chemistry students. There are also powerful search

engine apps such as PubChem Mobile (Android, by CRinUS.) which leads to a plethora of chemical informationthat could easily exceed the physical limit of a chemistry handbook or encyclopedia. ACS Mobile (iOS and Android, by American Chemical Society or ACS) leads the user to ACSresources and literature database with links to the latest ASAParticles. ChemSpider (by Molecular Materials Informatics,Inc.), a powerful compound search engine, can be used as anapp on iOS devices to discover structural information ,properties, MSDS, related literature, and vendors of chemicals.7

Utility Apps

The portability of smartphones provides a unique strength inchemistry laboratories. The following apps can be used in various teaching and research laboratories as reference checkersas mentioned above and also as practical operational tools forthe execution of experiments or simply for improving researchprotocols.

Agilent has dedicated LC Calc and GC Calc apps for iOSdevices. LC Calc (Figure 6 , right) can be used to optimize

liquid chromatography column conditions using the correlationamong mobile phase ow rate, column dimensions, and back pressure. A well-designed set of separation parameters can beapplied to improve resolution and speed. Similar to LC Calc , GC Calc can be used to optimize gas chromatography parameters. Both are benecial tools for separation scientist as well as students learning chromatographic separations ininstrumental analysis.

Industrial players such as Agilent, Promega, and Merck havemade multiple apps, such as EMD-PTE , that fulll very specialized needs. Promega (Figure 6 , left) has an app with its

Figure 5. Screen view of the The Chemical Touch Lite Edition

periodic table app. Image reproduced with permission fromChristopher J. Fennell.

Figure 6. Screen views of the Promega (left, reproduced withpermission from Promega) and LC Calc (right, reproduced withpermission from Agilent Technologies, Inc.) apps.




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name on both iOS and Android, which is a front-line helper for biochemists and molecular biologists. It comes with handy protocols, biomath calculators, and multimedia training toolsthat facilitates laboratory tasks and technical learning eff orts in biochemical research laboratories. Apps such as Buff er Calc

(iOS, by John Wiley and Sons, Inc.) provide similar capabilities. An app that is similar in specicity is the Buff er Calc for iOS,

a handy tool for chemists or biochemists who routinely make buff er solutions. This particular app provides a list of buff ers tochoose from, and a list of parameters that can be changed, suchas concentration and volume. Green Solvent (iOS, by Molecular Materials Informatics, Inc., Figure 7) has a variety

of solvents grouped by their functional groups. It provides thesolvents safety ratings and links to several mobile structuresearch apps so users can make a conscious selection of solvent when presented with multiple options. For example, wheneither methanol or acetonitrile can be used as eff ective mobilephase for HPLC separation,

Green Solvent

app can be usedto pick the greener one. Greener solvents can also be selectedfor sample extraction and glassware rinsing.

Convert Pad (Android, by Sunny Moon) can convert a lotof units and properties in physical chemistry, besides its otherconversion abilities. This tool can be used in physical chemistry labs for quick calculations. W. Chemistry Handbook alsocontains properties and calculators important for solutionchemistry, which becomes a indispensable tool for lab chemistsand students in general, biochemistry, and organic labs.

CONCLUSIONSThe availability of Chemistry apps on smartphones and otherportable electronic devices aff ords chemistry students andchemical professionals powerful and compact tools to solveproblems conveniently with reduced burden from conventionalmedia, heavy books, and bulky computers. The increasingadoption of smartphones is helped by dropping prices and easeof use. The increasing number of high-quality chemistry relatedapps transforms the landscape of chemistry teaching andlearning. Chemistry on the go, in the eld, and virtually in your hands is being realized inexpensively and becoming anirresistible trend in chemical education. The hand-held softwaretools and more powerful computing power in smartphones arealso being applied to facilitate active learning and researcheff orts in chemistry laboratories. The apps along with themultimedia features introduced in this review will potentially

attract students to obtain interactive and eff ective learningexperience in the elds of science, technology, engineering, andmathematics (STEM). When we write about the chemistry apps, newer and more powerful apps are still being developedand updated by chemists and engineers around the world tosolve specic problems. With the rapid evolution of chemistry apps, it is nearly impossible to cover all high-quality chemistryapps in one review. This review will hopefully introduce the versatile functionality and power of mobility from chemistryapps and get readers started on the journey of exploration.

ASSOCIATED CONTENT*S Supporting InformationSupplemental tables comparing app functions within speciccategories, along with a Web link to an updated review of latestchemistry apps in a tabular format. This material is available viathe Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.

AUTHOR INFORMATIONCorresponding Author* E-mail:[email protected] authors declare no competing nancial interest.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors would like to thank all app developers for theirpermission to let us publish the app icons and screenshots.Many of them also provided helpful feedback and comments. We would also like to acknowledge Alan J. Dans from HofstraUniversity for his artistic and graphic design of Figure 1 and theabstract gure.

REFERENCES(1) State of the Media: The Mobile Media Report Q3 2011, Nielsen,

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/report-the-rise-of-smartphones-apps-and-the-mobile-web/ (accessed Jan 2013).(2) StudyBlue Infographic, http://www.studyblue.com/projects/

infographic-mobile-studying-online-ashcards-on-smartphones (ac-cessed Jan 2013).(3) Bennett, J.; Pence, H. E. J. Chem. Educ. 2011 , 88 , 761763.(4) Clark, A. M.; Ekins, S.; Williams, A. J. Mol. Inf. 2012 , 31 , 569

584.(5) Williams, A. J.; Pence, H. E. J. Chem. Educ. 2011 , 88 , 683688.(6) Williams, A. J.; Ekins, S.; Clark, A. M.; Jack, J. J.; Apodaka, R.

Drug Discovery Today 2011 , 16 , 928939.(7) Pence, H. E.; Williams, A. J. J. Chem. Educ. 2010 , 87 , 1123 1124.(8) The mobile chemist and chemical engineer, Stanford University

Library, http://lib.stanford.edu/swain-library/mobile-apps-chemists-chemical-engineers (accessed Jan 2013).(9) Chemistry on mobile devices, University of Chicago Library,

http://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/content.php?pid=65132&sid=1703522(accessed Jan 2013).(10) Mobile Chemistry, Indiana University Bloomington Chemistry

Library Blog, https://blogs.libraries.iub.edu/libchem/category/mobile-chemistry/ (accessed Jan 2013).(11) Crossairt, T. J.; Grubbs, W. T. J. Chem. Educ. 2011 , 88 , 841

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1082.

Figure 7. Screen view of the Green Solvents app. Image reproduced with permission from Molecular Materials Informatics, Inc.


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chemistry on the go review of chemistry apps on smartphones

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