The importance of being able to obtain chemicals commercially, being
aware of necessary laboratory precautions, and having access to
hazardous-property information is essential for students and researchers.
This chapter provides commercial availability links to individual
chemical company catalogs and to websites that are linked to multiple
commercial sources. It describes laboratory-safety information resources
and provides hazardous-property information, for both individual
and classes of chemicals, and includes appropriate search techniques.
Information on commercial availability, safety, and hazards is interrelated
in the sense that commercial chemical companies are responsible
for providing Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) for their products.
The MSDS for a substance provides basic physical-property information,
possible hazardous properties, and instructions for safe use
