Being able to draw chemical structures and schemes is an important skill for a chemists. There are many drawing packages available for preparing structures and schemes, with ChemDraw being the most commonly used software at York. Guides to specific software are linked below, with this page focussing on general aspects of drawing structures and schemes in a software agnostic manner.

IUPAC guidance

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) provide comprehensive guidance on the preparation of chemical structures and schemes which was published as Pure Appl. Chem., 2008, 80, 277–410. DOI: 10.1351/pac200880020277. It is a general expectation for all chemists to follow these recommendations.

Considerations for structures

When drawing structures

Considerations for schemes

When drawing schemes

Labelling of a structure

When drawing structures