Article pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
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 portable touch-controlled computers such as smartphones and iPods are seeing dramatic growth with increasing adoption rates. This review covers about 30 popular and mostly free apps that can be used to learn chemistry and to serve as reference or research tools. The target audience includes students in high school, college, and graduate school, chemical professionals, and teachers.
KEYWORDS: First-year Undergraduate/General, Upper-division Undergraduate, Graduate Education/Research, Interdiciplinary/Multidiciplinary, Computer Based Learning, Internet/Web-Based learning
W
site describes a handful of paid apps that are suitable for professional chemists or chemical engineers8 whereas the others put more emphasis on the convenient access to chemistry journals online.9,10 There is even a Chemical Mahjong game app to make learning chemistry more fun and interesting.11 Differentiating from existing articles, our review intends to cover the majority of the free and popular apps available 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 two most popular mobile operating systems: Android and iOS (see the list of apps in alphabetical order in the Supporting Information). The applications listed are the ones that were found 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 for tablets. This review discusses apps that are available on smartphones, as these are more prevalent, affordable, and portable than comparable tablets or laptops. In addition, only mobile phone apps or iPod touch apps are discussed here as the relevant devices are much smaller and easier to carry around, which potentially increases their availability in classrooms, laboratories, and school campuses as people already have to carry their phone and the adoption of smartphones is increasing everyday.1 With this review, we intend to cover a broader range of free apps that are easily accessible and that could make a broader impact. We have tested all the apps discussed here to give the readers an objective opinion on the performance of each. Some
ith the drop in prices and ever-increasing computing ability and video processing power, smartphones are becoming widespread among high school and college students. Nielsen reports that between 2009 and 2011 smartphone ownership for 13−17 year olds went from 16% to 40% and for 18−24 year olds from 23% to 53%.1 Smartphones can serve as powerful and convenient educational tools on a mobile platform, which potentially encourages learning. A study by StudyBlue found that students who used a mobile application to study spent on average 40 min or more a week on studying.2 The 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 development of cloud computing technology also speeds up the adoption of these mobile apps as chemical education tools or collaborative learning platforms,3 as more programs can be accessed through the “cloud” and large amount of chemical data or structural information can be stored in the “cloud”. Collaboration through the interconnection of multiple chemistry apps was recently demonstrated as a new chemoinformatics tool to increase work efficiency,4 which can be utilized to raise the chemistry learning experience to a new level. A recent paper by Williams and Pence5 presented the benefits of using smartphones and similar Internet capable devices in the classroom. In two other articles, Williams et al. noted several specific apps for drug discovery6 and highlighted Chemspider app as a powerful hand-held chemical search engine.7 Several universities are beginning to implement mobile chemistry into their curricula,8 there are also many universities that provide online guides to mobile applications.8−10 One Web © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
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Table 1. Chemistry Apps by Disciplines Discipline General and Inorganic Organic Analytical Physical Biochemistry a
Android
iOS
AtomDroid, Chemistry Cheat Sheets, Chemistry Mobile, Convert Pad, Molecular Viewer 3D, Periodic Droid, Periodic Table, W Chemistry Handbook AtomDroid, Chemistry By Designa, ChemDoodle Mobilea, Molecular Viewer 3D, W Chemistry Handbook Chemistry Helper, EMD PTEa, PubChem Mobile, W Chemistry Handbook, ChemSpidera Chemistry Mobile, Convert Pad, W Chemistry Handbook AtomDroid, ESmol, Molecular Viewer 3D, NDKmol, Promegaa
iElements, The Chemical Touch Lite Chemistry By Designa, ChemDoodle Mobilea, Green Solvent, Molecules, Named Reactions, Organic Name Reactions EMD PTEa, ChemMobi (by Accelrys Inc.), ChemSpidera, GC Calc, Green Solvent, LC Calc, MolPrime Molecules Insensitive (by Klaus Boldt) Amino Acid Tutor, Buffer Calc, Promegaa, Genetic Code
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 “Buffer 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 Söderström 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
Undergraduate Introductory Courses
ChemDoodle Mobilea, Atomdroid, Chemistry Cheat Sheets, Chemistry Helper, ConvertPad, EMD PTEa, Periodic Droid, Periodic Table, W Chemistry Handbook Atomdroid, Chem Doodle Mobilea, Chemistry Helper, Chemistry By Designa, Chemistry Mobile, ConvertPad, Molecular Viewer 3D, Promegaa, PubChem, W Chemistry Handbook, ChemSpidera ACS Mobilea, Atomdroid, Chem Doodle Mobilea, Chemistry By Designa, ESMol, NDKMol, Molecular Viewer 3D, Promegaa, PubChem
Undergraduate UpperLevel Courses Graduate Level and Professional Chemist a
EMD PTEa, iElements, Molecules, Promegaa, The Chemical Touch Lite Amino Acid Tutor, ChemDoodle Mobilea, EMD PTEa, iElements, Genetic Code, Molecules Buffer Calc, Green Solvent, ChemMobi,a ChemSpider, MolPrime, Named Reactions, Organic Named Reactions,a Promega, Chem Doodle Mobile,a Chemistry By Design ACS Mobilea, Buffer Calc, Chem Doodle Mobilea, Chemistry By Designa, ChemMobi, ChemSpider, GC Calc, Green Solvent, Insensitive, LC Calc, MolPrime, Promegaa
Denotes apps available on both Android and iOS.
of the apps presented here carry a significant technical learning curve, which can be explored to a deeper level. Efforts have
been made to provide a succinct review of each app without the intention to cover everything available or remotely relevant. B
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INCORPORATING APPS FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING CHEMISTRY
Android test device, the default speed of two-finger zoom-in could be too sensitive to complete, making the molecule disappear on the screen. Several Android apps such as “Atomdroid”, “Molecular Viewer 3D” (Android, by Adam Hogan), “ESmol”, and “NDKmol” (Figure 2 right, Android, both by Biochem_fan) can download protein files from PDB and display the complex protein structures with stunning detail. This could be a valuable tool for teaching protein structures and interactions between small molecules and proteins. “ESmol” can convert polymer structures into beautiful ribbon models. 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 in packing mode. If the file size is bigger than 3 MB, “NDKmol” from the same app developer should be used in the place of “ESmol”. Both can handle PDB file formats and load MDL MOL (=SDF) format from SD card or directly from PubChem. “Molecular Viewer 3D” works with PDB, CML, MDL SD, Sybyl Mol2 file formats. The app can display custom-drawn structures 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 file formats. A free and open-source software called “Avogadro”13 could be used to convert file formats from Chemdraw or Chemsketch to improve the compatibility with molecular viewer apps. Equipped with the molecular viewer apps, students can access simple or complex structures from a device in their pockets and manipulate the structures to better understand bonding and steric effects. The convenient viewing can be used to assign NMR chemical shifts and to study the reactive sites for organic chemistry. In one of our research projects, for example, “Atomdroid” and “Molecules” apps are used to predict the change in NMR chemical shift values when there are subtle changes of derivatives on core structures of synthetic cannabinoids, all of which were used as “designer drugs”. With apps such as “ESmol” and “NDKmol, biomolecules become easier to “touch” and “feel” as large molecular structures can be enlarged for detailed observations, which is hard to achieve with physical models.
Molecular Viewer Apps
With the dramatic improvement of graphics and CPU computing power on smartphone devices, the rotation and rendering of three-dimensional (3-D) molecular structures can be easily and smoothly achieved on iPhone, iPod touch, and Android phones with the one-finger swiping or two-finger zooming motions. Five years ago, these functions were reserved for high-end graphics processing workstations with sophisticated software engines costing thousands of dollars. Today apps such as “Atomdroid”12 (Android, by CCB Goettingen) and “Molecules” (iOS, by Sunset Lake Software) can create stunning and interactive 3-D renderings of molecular structures. Both apps show ball-and-stick models of energy-minimized 3-D structures as default. Molecular viewer apps can be a useful tool in the classroom. For example, in an organic chemistry class, as a supplement to molecular model sets. The advantage here is that a student can easily switch between viewing a space-filling 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. These models can also be used for drug-discovery research, particularly in the investigation of the binding between a drug molecule and a target protein. The viewer tools can be used to evaluate the binding pocket and specifically the type of intermolecular force involved in binding (i.e., pi−pi stacking and hydrogen-bonding). “Molecules” can display both proteins and DNA. It also comes equipped with a search function that utilizes PubChem and Protein Data Bank (PDB). Once the molecule is found, it can 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 and upload their structures to the smartphones for display and rendering. Care must be taken to ensure the compatibility of file formats. Besides ball-and stick models, “Atomdroid” (Figure 2 left) can also display skeletal models along with calculated total energy. Many of the display parameters can be fine-tuned to optimize the presentation and maneuvering speed. In our
Study Guides and Reference Apps
Heavy textbooks, chemistry dictionaries, and reference books such as the CRC Handbook are quickly becoming history as hand-held devices such as smartphones are changing the way students study, memorize, review, and utilize chemical knowledge. Several apps address the need for portable devices as study guides or easy chemistry helpers. The following apps not only help high school or college students to cram for chemistry exams, but also serve as a reminder or reference for graduate students and experienced chemists and professionals. For instance, a general chemistry student studying for an exam 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 anions covered in general chemistry. The student can also promptly check the virtual handbook in a general chemistry lab to retrieve a pKa value, a molecular weight, or a density for experimental calculations. “Chemistry Cheat Sheets Free” (Android, by NadsTech.com) covers the important topics in general chemistry and organic chemistry in a concise fashion with many summary tables and figures. 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). C
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cumbersome maneuvering on pages because the figures and tables are scanned files that have been uploaded into the app. This presents a problem when zooming in and out of the file. Another inconvenience is the lack of a search function. “Chemistry By Design”14 (Android & iOS) summarizes the total 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 app also provides blacked out reaction conditions and intermediate products for quizzing. It is a useful app for advanced organic synthesis students, graduate students, and pharmaceutical industry professionals. Compared to “Chemistry Cheat Sheets”, “W Chemistry Handbook” is a more comprehensive reference app for the reviewing of basic concepts and techniques. It is carefully separated into six major categories (Figure 3, right) with many
amino acids are arranged. This is a great app for a student at an advanced level because it is not self-explanatory. To utilize the app, you have to understand the amino acid and codon concepts. It would be useful for a student in a biochemistry class learning amino acids and codons or as a reference guide. The stack of flashcards can usually identify a beginner student of organic chemistry, and the erratic mumbling and flipping over that comes with them. Today, however, a smartphone can essentially replace that stack of flashcards. “Named Reactions Lite” (iOS, by Synthetiq Solutions) is a perfect 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 flashcards, which can be flipped through. It is fun to use because of the interactive features. Another indispensible app for an organic chemistry student is “Organic Named Reactions” (iOS, by Indiana University). The app provides a quiz-like introduction of reactions. The format is similar to index cards; the home screen shows a menu of four options to choose from: reactions, mechanisms, missing reagents, and missing products. Reactions can be viewed either by name first, by overall reaction first, or both. This option also contains an index of all the reactions. This is an intuitive system for learning because the reactions are broken down into separate sections. A new student of organic chemistry can choose to learn the names first, or the overall reaction first, then move on to learning reagents and products, and finally the mechanisms. The only glitch is that there is no way to choose which reactions is going to be presented. Structure Drawing Apps
Figure 3. Screen views of the “Periodic Table” (left, reproduced with permission from Socratica, LLC) and “W Chemistry Handbook” (right, reproduced with permission from Dilthiumlabs) apps.
With the touch screen on smartphones, 2-D molecular structures can be drawn to precision with one or two fingers. 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
subcategories that cover most entry-level knowledge in all branches of chemistry. For example, there are subsections for organic compounds, salts, inorganic acids, gases, and biomolecules under “chemicals”. Chemical, physical, and other properties of the above chemicals are listed under “properties”. A solution calculator is included, which helps with reinforcing quantitative skills. A handful of constants used in general chemistry and physical chemistry are listed under “constants”. The properties of chemicals can be compared in tabular format. All included information is searchable within the app. Other apps such as “Chemistry Helper” (Android, by Adam Hogan) have similar functions with expanded capabilities such as IR and NMR tables for organic functional groups, calculation and conversion tools for analytical chemistry and physical chemistry, solubility rules for inorganic chemistry, reduction potentials for electrochemistry, and so forth. A periodic table is also included. Similar tools and reference are also provided in “ChemMobile” (Android, by Qan) app. “Amino Acid Tutor” (iOS, by Ivan Antonov) is a useful app for learning amino acids; it is essentially a quiz app. It is used like a set of flash cards. The app asks to identify different amino acids based on name, structure, or code. It supplements other learning tools in the beginning of a biochemistry class. “Genetic Code” (iOS, also by Ivan Antonov), is a similar type of app. It provides the user with the names of amino acids and the bases that code for them. This is a well-designed reference guide that is visually pleasing. There are multiple different ways that the
Figure 4. Acetone structure in “ChemDoodle Mobile” (left) and its integrated NMR spectra (right). Images reproduced with permission from iChemLabs, LLC.
easy tool for sketching molecules to show energy-minimized 2D structures and to calculate simple NMR spectra. NMR and property predictions work very well for small molecules containing organic elements. The drawn structures can be saved in the paid version of the app. Drawing molecular structure on a hand-held device is often prone to mistakes at the tapping locations, which is a constant challenge for this kind of app. D
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The limited screen sizes (ranging from 3−4.7 in. diagonally), however, made drawing complex molecular structures extremely challenging with these structure drawing apps. The drawing often requires dexterous hand maneuvers and frequent zooming in and out. For simple molecules often encountered in general chemistry, these apps are suitable for the learning of bonding, molecular geometry, molecular polarity, and Lewis structures. Periodic Table Apps
Besides “Chemistry Helper” and “ChemMobile”, there are several 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 “The Chemical Touch Lite” (by Christopher J. Fennell) are two popular iOS apps while “Periodic Droid” (by DroidLa) and “Periodic Table” (Figure 3 left, by Socratica, LLC) are Androidexclusive. “EMD-PTE” stands out with clean HD resolution and rich functions. It carries a calculation tool of atomic weight percentage 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 a smaller screen. Overall this app has the highest rating. “Periodic Droid” lists elements by atomic numbers or in the periodic table. It comes with a quiz function for studying and reviewing various elemental properties such radii, atomic weights, symbols, physical properties, and history. The elements can also be listed using the order of 16 different properties. “Periodic Table” app is tailored more toward learning 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, atomic number, phase, density, melting point, boiling point, heats of fusion and vaporization, specific heat, oxidation states, ionization energies, electronegativity, covalent, atomic, and van der Waals (VDW) radii. The app also provides a Wikipedia link that opens up in the browser. When an element is chosen, only the symbol and atomic number appear; for all other information, it is necessary to click “more info” and an element page comes up. Although the element group and location is given and the table is color coded by type (halogen, metalloid, etc.), these colors are left to the user to figure out. This could, however, be used as an educational tool, so that students can figure out the grouping for themselves as a review. “The Chemical Touch Lite” (Figure 5) is another practical periodic table reference. This app again gives a good amount of information on the chemical and physical properties of each element, including oxidation states and electronegativity. The table is color-coded depending on the property selected, each property has its own color-coded scale. Another helpful option is the ability to change between different temperature units. For a beginner, this table might be a bit confusing as the possible oxidation states are not labeled clearly and the units are not very inherently obvious. This is still a good reference tool for someone with some familiarity with the periodic table.
Figure 5. Screen view of the “The Chemical Touch Lite Edition” periodic table app. Image reproduced with permission from Christopher J. Fennell.
engine apps such as “PubChem Mobile” (Android, by CRinUS.) which leads to a plethora of chemical information that 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 ACS resources and literature database with links to the latest ASAP articles. “ChemSpider”(by Molecular Materials Informatics, Inc.), a powerful compound search engine, can be used as an app 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 in chemistry laboratories. The following apps can be used in various teaching and research laboratories as reference checkers as mentioned above and also as practical operational tools for the execution of experiments or simply for improving research protocols. Agilent has dedicated “LC Calc” and “GC Calc” apps for iOS devices. “LC Calc” (Figure 6, right) can be used to optimize
Figure 6. Screen views of the “Promega” (left, reproduced with permission from Promega) and “LC Calc” (right, reproduced with permission from Agilent Technologies, Inc.) apps.
liquid chromatography column conditions using the correlation among mobile phase flow rate, column dimensions, and back pressure. A well-designed set of separation parameters can be applied to improve resolution and speed. Similar to “LC Calc”, “GC Calc” can be used to optimize gas chromatography parameters. Both are beneficial tools for separation scientist as well as students learning chromatographic separations in instrumental analysis. Industrial players such as Agilent, Promega, and Merck have made multiple apps, such as “EMD-PTE”, that fulfill very specialized needs. “Promega” (Figure 6, left) has an app with its
Research Apps
There are several chemistry reference apps beyond the simple study 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 E
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attract students to obtain interactive and effective learning experience in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). When we write about the chemistry apps, newer and more powerful apps are still being developed and updated by chemists and engineers around the world to solve specific problems. With the rapid evolution of chemistry apps, it is nearly impossible to cover all high-quality chemistry apps in one review. This review will hopefully introduce the versatile functionality and power of mobility from chemistry apps and get readers started on the journey of exploration.
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 tools that facilitates laboratory tasks and technical learning efforts in biochemical research laboratories. Apps such as “Buffer Calc” (iOS, by John Wiley and Sons, Inc.) provide similar capabilities. An app that is similar in specificity is the Buffer Calc for iOS, a handy tool for chemists or biochemists who routinely make buffer solutions. This particular app provides a list of buffers to choose from, and a list of parameters that can be changed, such as concentration and volume. “Green Solvent” (iOS, by Molecular Materials Informatics, Inc., Figure 7) has a variety
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
* Supporting Information S
Supplemental tables comparing app functions within specific categories, along with a Web link to an updated review of latest chemistry apps in a tabular format. This material is available via the Internet at http://pubs.acs.org.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to thank all app developers for their permission 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 Hofstra University for his artistic and graphic design of Figure 1 and the abstract figure.
Figure 7. Screen view of the “Green Solvents” app. Image reproduced with permission from Molecular Materials Informatics, Inc.
of solvents grouped by their functional groups. It provides the solvents’ safety ratings and links to several mobile structure search apps so users can make a conscious selection of solvent when presented with multiple options. For example, when either methanol or acetonitrile can be used as effective mobile phase for HPLC separation, “Green Solvent” app can be used to pick the greener one. Greener solvents can also be selected for sample extraction and glassware rinsing. “Convert Pad” (Android, by Sunny Moon) can convert a lot of units and properties in physical chemistry, besides its other conversion abilities. This tool can be used in physical chemistry labs for quick calculations. “W. Chemistry Handbook” also contains properties and calculators important for solution chemistry, which becomes a indispensable tool for lab chemists and students in general, biochemistry, and organic labs.
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REFERENCES
(1) State of the Media: The Mobile Media Report Q3 2011, Nielsen, http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/report-the-riseof-smartphones-apps-and-the-mobile-web/ (accessed Jan 2013). (2) StudyBlue Infographic, http://www.studyblue.com/projects/ infographic-mobile-studying-online-flashcards-on-smartphones (accessed Jan 2013). (3) Bennett, J.; Pence, H. E. J. Chem. Educ. 2011, 88, 761−763. (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, 683−688. (6) Williams, A. J.; Ekins, S.; Clark, A. M.; Jack, J. J.; Apodaka, R. L. Drug Discovery Today 2011, 16, 928−939. (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-chemistschemical-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− 842. (12) Feldt, J.; Mata, R. A.; Dieterich, J. M. J. Chem. Inf. Model. 2012, 52, 1072−1078. (13) “Avogadro” free cross-platform molecular editor, http:// avogadro.openmolecules.net/wiki/Main_Page (accessed Jan 2013). (14) Draghici, C.; Njardarson, J. T. J. Chem. Educ. 2012, 89, 1080− 1082.
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CONCLUSIONS The availability of Chemistry apps on smartphones and other portable electronic devices affords chemistry students and chemical professionals powerful and compact tools to solve problems conveniently with reduced burden from conventional media, heavy books, and bulky computers. The increasing adoption of smartphones is helped by dropping prices and ease of use. The increasing number of high-quality chemistry related apps transforms the landscape of chemistry teaching and learning. Chemistry on the go, in the field, and “virtually” in your hands is being realized inexpensively and becoming an irresistible trend in chemical education. The hand-held software tools and more powerful computing power in smartphones are also being applied to facilitate active learning and research efforts in chemistry laboratories. The apps along with the multimedia features introduced in this review will potentially F
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