Validation of thermophysical data for scientific and engineering applications. J Chem Thermodyn 2019;133:208-222. [PMID: 32165767 PMCID: PMC7067062 DOI: 10.1016/j.jct.2019.01.029]

Scientific publications and data evaluation in the digital age (a perspective of a thermodynamics researcher)

The state of scientific publications, problems, possible solutions, and underutilized opportunities are discussed on the basis of author's experience as a reader, author, reviewer, and editor. The author feels that significant improvement can be made, which will increase the efficiency of communication and quality of information. The focused area is thermophysical properties related to chemical engineering, but the concerns and conclusions can be applied to a wider scope.

Towards improved FAIRness of the ThermoML Archive

The ThermoML Archive is a subset of Thermodynamics Research Center (TRC) data holdings corresponding to cooperation between NIST TRC and five journals: Journal of Chemical Engineering and Data (ISSN: 1520-5134), The Journal of Chemical Thermodynamics (ISSN: 1096-3626), Fluid Phase Equilibria (ISSN: 0378-3812), Thermochimica Acta (ISSN: 0040-6031), and International Journal of Thermophysics (ISSN: 1572-9567). Data from initial cooperation (around 2003) through the 2019 calendar year are included. The archive has undergone a major update with the goal of improving the FAIRness and user experience of the data provided by the service. The web application provides comprehensive property browsing and searching capabilities; searching relies on a RESTful API provided by the Cordra software for managing digital objects. JSON files with a schema derived from ThermoML are provided as an additional serialization to lower the barrier to programmatic consumption of the information, for stakeholders who may have a preference of JSON over XML. The ThermoML and JSON files for all available entries can be downloaded from data.nist.gov (https://data.nist.gov/od/id/mds2-2422).

Efficient Ab Initio Estimation of Formation Enthalpies for Organic Compounds: Extension to Sulfur and Critical Evaluation of Experimental Data

The efficient protocol for the estimation of gas-phase enthalpies of formation developed previously for C, H, O, N, and F elements was extended to sulfur. The protocol is based on a local coupled cluster with single, double, and perturbative triple excitation [CCSD(T)] approximation and allows rapid evaluation of compounds with sizes computationally prohibitive to canonical CCSD(T) using quadruple zeta basis sets. As a part of model development, a comprehensive review and critical evaluation of experimental data were performed for 87 sulfur-containing organic and inorganic compounds. A compact model with only three empirical parameters for sulfur introduced to address the effects beyond frozen core CCSD(T) was developed. The model exhibits approximately 2 kJ·mol^-1 standard deviation over a set of experimental values for a diverse collection of sulfur-containing compounds. The complete basis set version of the model demonstrates a similar performance and requires only one empirical parameter. Multiple problems with the existing experimental data were identified and discussed. In addition, a lack of reliable data for certain important classes of sulfur compounds was found to impede the model generalization and confident performance assessment.

Corrections to standard state in combustion calorimetry: an update and a web-based tool

Combustion calorimetry is the predominant method for determination of enthalpies of formation for organic compounds. Both initial and final states of the calorimeter deviate significantly from the standard conditions. Correction of the obtained results to the standard state must be applied as accurately as possible to determine the combustion energy with an acceptable uncertainty, which is typically a few hundredths of a percent. The correction procedures in their current form were introduced in 1956 with simplifications to allow application in a pre-computer era. In this work, the procedures have been updated with respect to both the equations and reference values. The most reliable data sources are identified, and the updated algorithm is presented in the form of a Web-based tool available through the NIST TRC Web site.