Changelog

We are pleased to announce the public launch of the Virtual Textbook of Organic Chemistry, originally developed at Michigan State University by Professor William H. Reusch.

This comprehensive organic chemistry textbook has been fully digitized and integrated into OrganicChemistryData.org with modern web standards. The textbook has been available internally for some time, but today marks its first availability to the general public as part of this site.

What's Included

• Complete textbook content covering structure and bonding through organometallic chemistry
• Interactive 3D molecule viewers (JSmol) for visualizing chemical structures
• Spectroscopy chapter covering UV-Vis, IR, Mass Spectrometry, and NMR
• Practice problem sets with detailed solutions
• Navigable chapter tree with previous/next page links

The Virtual Textbook is freely available to all users — students, educators, and researchers — as part of the Division of Organic Chemistry's mission to provide open educational resources for the chemistry community.

The Grossman PPAP Database of polycyclic polyprenylated acylphloroglucinols, compiled by Prof. Robert B. Grossman of the University of Kentucky, is now available as a fully searchable database-driven application.

Features

• Filterable structure table with 18 structural feature categories
• Alphabetical compound index
• Clickable compound names display MDL Molfile data for import into ChemDraw and other software
• DOI-linked references with EZProxy support for institutional access
• Footnotes displayed in modal popups
• Admin interface for editors to add structures, compounds, and references

The database was migrated from a static JavaScript application to PostgreSQL, preserving all compound data, references, and structural images.

We have implemented an automated alt text system covering approximately 9,700 chemistry structure and reaction images across the site.

Chemical structural formulas are a uniquely visual language — a single reaction scheme can encode information that takes an entire research paper to describe. This makes traditional image alt text especially challenging for chemistry education sites.

Our Approach

Rather than leaving images without alt text or using generic placeholders, we built a metadata-driven system that generates contextual descriptions from existing structured data:

• Grossman PPAP — alt text includes compound names and structural classifications from the database (e.g., "Structure 3: hyperfirin — bicyclononanes")
• Evans Problem Sets — alt text includes problem category and topic keywords (e.g., "Evans Problem 1 question (advanced) — Cycloaddition, Rearrangement")
• Hans Reich Collection — alt text includes the resource section and page topic (e.g., "Carbonyl Chemistry: Aldol Reactions, figure 3")
• Reusch Virtual Textbook — alt text includes chapter and page context (e.g., "Virtual Textbook: Structure and Bonding — Electron Configurations, figure 2")

This approach tells screen reader users what an image is about and where it fits in the curriculum, enabling them to find the relevant information in the literature. Our accessibility statement has been updated accordingly.

OrganicChemistryData.org has been completely rebuilt from the ground up on a modern, secure infrastructure.

New Platform

• Migrated from a static Eleventy/Snowpack site to a dynamic PHP application with PostgreSQL database
• New server infrastructure: Ubuntu 24.04, Nginx, PHP 8.3, with automated security monitoring
• Self-hosted Matomo analytics replacing Google Analytics — no third-party tracking
• WordPress OAuth authentication for administrative access

Redesigned Interface

• New honeycomb homepage with categorized resource tiles
• Standardized sidebar navigation across all collections
• Improved mobile responsiveness
• Security headers, TLS 1.2+, and rate limiting

Content Migration

• All 15 Hans Reich Collection resource sections migrated with full data integrity
• NMR Solvents table migrated to local hosting with first-party analytics
• Evans Problem Sets converted to database-driven application with topic filtering
• Grossman PPAP database converted from static JavaScript to PostgreSQL with admin interface
• Short URL redirects preserved (/pka, /nmr, /acronyms, etc.)
• Full sitemap generated with 1,373 URLs

As promised we are launching the Dave Evans Problem Set Generator. This contains all of the problems hosted in his original service, with some modernization and streamlining.

Dave Evans Problem Set Generator

We have added several new resource links and updated existing collections. Check the Links page for the latest additions.

We are pleased to announce the launch of version 2 of the OrganicChemistryData website, featuring improved navigation, responsive design, and new content.

We are aware of some display issues on iOS devices and are working on fixes. Thank you for your patience.

You can now subscribe to our news feed to stay updated on new content and site improvements.

We have made several accessibility improvements to the site, including better keyboard navigation, improved color contrast, and screen reader compatibility.

We are excited to announce the public launch of OrganicChemistryData website

This site is the combined effort of the ACS Organic Chemistry Division volunteers and consists of content migrated from the websites of the late Prof. Hans Reich (UW-Madison) and Prof. Dave Evans (Harvard).