This website, run by the American Chemical Society, is designed as a textbook companion but offers a great deal of information for chemistry students. The site says that you have to register, but I was able to view section sections without doing so. The site does claim that by setting up a user account students [...]
Free Online Chemistry Textbooks
Among all of the physical sciences, chemistry is something of a building block for all the others. It introduces students to concepts that they will use in virtually every other science course they take. It is also one of the courses non-science students often take to fulfill general studies requirements.
There are a number of higher-level and advanced sciences that fall under the umbrella of chemistry and as I find materials for each of them, I will be adding them to their own categories like I have already done with Theoretical Chemistry.
Even though most general chemistry textbooks will cover the same material, it’s how that material is presented that often makes all the difference in the world. I plan to continually add general chemistry textbooks as I find them in the hopes that if one doesn’t work out for you, one of the others might.
My scholarly chemistry pursuits came to a screeching halt at Organic Chemistry so I may inadvertently misfile a textbook or two. Please let me know if you spot any mistakes or if you know of any great textbooks that I’ve not included.
Subcategories
List of Free Online Chemistry Textbooks
ACS Chemistry
An Introduction to Chemistry
Author Mark Bishop offers his entire chemistry textbook free online. He does request that students wishing to fully utilize his site consider a one-time shareware contribution and/or offers a variety of printed and electronic versions of his text for sale.
Atomic Structure and the Periodic Table
Online textbook designed for advanced high school students and college freshman-level courses.
chem1 virtual textbook
Chemistry 101 Textbook by retired Chemistry professor Stephen Lower from Simon Fraser University in Burnaby Canada. This self-published textbook only exists online and provides a wonderful reference text for General Chemistry and Environmental Chemistry Students.
Chemical Dynamics
I placed this textbook in the general chemistry section because it was designed as a Freshman level course on the systematic study of reactions and reactivity. The authors suggest the text be used near the end of the general chemistry course. Subject matter is introduced but in-depth study is left for advanced courses making this [...]
Chemical Principles. Third Edition
Hopefully not too dated, this book was written in 1979 by Richard E Dickerson, Harry B. Gray and Gilbert P. Haight. It is designed for both science and non-science majors as a general university chemistry course.
CHEMystery: An Interactive Guide to Chemistry
This entry to the 1996 ThinkQuest Internet Contest was created by three high school students in New York – Clyde, Gauray and Christopher, two of whom went on to study at MIT and one who studied at the State University of New York at Sony Brook. This unique high school chemistry textbook written by students [...]
Concept Development Studies in Chemistry
Online textbook for an introductory general chemistry course. Written by John S. Hutchinson of Rice University.
Concepts in Chemistry
Nicholas K Kildahl Professor, a member of the Chemistry faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute is offering his online textbook for all general chemistry students. His text starts with a chapter on The Quantized Atom and concludes with The d-Block Metals. He includes 61 experiment ideas and a section of laboratory tutorials.
Electrons and Chemical Bonding
Written by Harry B. Gray in 1965, this online textbook is suggested for use as a supplementary text in the undergraduate chemistry curriculum.