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Data booklet

What the IB gives you — so you know what to look up, not memorise.

The IB publishes a Chemistry data booklet containing a periodic table, equations, constants and tabulated data. You have access to it throughout the course, and a clean copy is provided in every examination at both SL and HL.

Its purpose is to keep the emphasis on interpretation and application rather than memorization of data — in other words, it tells you what you do not have to learn by heart.

Editorial Most students discover the data booklet’s contents in month six. Reading it cover to cover in week zero is a genuine edge — knowing that a table of electrode potentials, IR wavenumbers, NMR shifts, bond enthalpies and pK_a values already exists fundamentally changes what you bother to memorise.

What is in the data booklet

Listed by name so you can check whether something you are about to memorise is already given to you:

Constants and fundamental data

  • Avogadro constant N_A
  • A_r values (to 2 d.p.)
  • Molar volume at STP
  • Gas constant R
  • Planck constant h (with E = hf and c = λf)
  • Faraday constant F

Equations — moles, concentration and gases

  • n = m/M
  • n = cV
  • PV = nRT
  • Combined gas law

Equations — thermodynamics

  • ΔH⦵c and ΔH⦵f data
  • Standard entropy values S⦵
  • ΔG⦵ = −nFE⦵cell
  • ΔG⦵ = −RT lnK
  • ΔG = ΔG⦵ + RT lnQ

Equations — acid–base

  • pH / pOH / K_w equations
  • Indicator pH ranges

Equations — kinetics

  • Arrhenius equation and its linear form

Equations — reaction efficiency

  • Atom economy equation

Tabulated data

  • Electronegativity values
  • Bonding triangle
  • Average bond enthalpies
  • Standard reduction potentials E⦵
  • Colour wheel

Spectroscopic data (HL)

  • MS fragment dataHL
  • IR characteristic wavenumbersHL
  • ¹H NMR dataHL
  • Electromagnetic spectrumHL

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