AQA A Level Chemistry Data Sheet (Data Booklet)

The AQA A Level Chemistry Data Sheet, or Data Booklet as AQA call it, is a useful resource that all AQA A Level Chemistry students should get to know well, not just for their exams, but throughout their course. It is an essential tool that supports calculations and quantitative analysis of chemical phenomena.

Stewart Hird

Written by: Stewart Hird

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What is the AQA A Level Chemistry Data Sheet (Data Booklet)?

AQA provides two versions of the data sheet; one for use in AS exams and the other in A Level exams.

You can find the two sheets here:

AQA AS Chemistry Data Sheet

AQA A Level Chemistry Data Booklet

What sort of information can be found in the AQA A Level Chemistry Data Booklet?

Aside from the AQA A Level Periodic Table, the Data Booklet contains:

  • Infrared absorption data

  • 1H NMR chemical shift data

  • 13C NMR chemical shift data

  • Selected organic molecules

The last three items will only be found in the AQA A Level Chemistry Data Booklet, not the AQA AS Chemistry Data Sheet

Infrared Absorption Data

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Source: AQA A Level Chemistry Data Booklet

An extract from AQA A Level Chemistry Data Sheet showing how infrared data values are expressed in wavenumbers

  • The Data Booklet shows ranges of infrared absorptions for different types of covalent bonds. Whenever you have a question about infrared, be sure to quote the range associated with a specific bond, not just the type of bond. 

  • The rather strange looking cm-1 unit of 'Wavenumber' is derived from the more familiar wavelength, which is a measure of the length between two crests in an electromagnetic wave. Wavenumber is the reciprocal of wavelength and is a more practical unit to use in the operation of IR spectrometers.

You can find out more about infrared spectroscopy in our revision notes here:Infrared Spectroscopy

1H NMR chemical shift data

aqa-a-level-chemistry-data-booklet-h1-nmr

Source: AQA A Level Chemistry Data Booklet

The AQA A Level Chemistry Data Booklet includes a table of 1H NMR chemical shift values. The chemical shift can help to identify a specific type of proton in a molecule, providing evidence that allows a chemical structure to be deduced.

  • You won't come across NMR spectroscopy unless you do the full A Level Chemistry course. Like IR data you should quote a range of NMR values from the data table, to support your answer.

  • The curly d is the Greek delta and is a symbol for chemical shift in NMR. Chemical shift indicates how far along a particular peak is located with respect to a reference peak called TMS. TMS is an abbreviation for tetramethylsilane and provides a benchmark to compare peaks to.

  • Further information about 1H NMR spectroscopy can be found in these revision notes: 1H NMR

13C NMR chemical shift data

aqa-a-level-chemistry-data-booklet-c13-nmr

Source: AQA A Level Chemistry Data Booklet

The AQA A Level Chemistry Data Booklet includes a table of 13C NMR chemical shift values. The chemical shift can help to identify a specific type of carbon atom in a molecule, providing evidence that allows a chemical structure to be deduced.

  • 13C NMR is less useful to a chemist than 1H NMR as it doesn't provide the fine detail needed to deduce complex structures, but it is another tool in the chemists' tooblbox.

  • You can find out more about 13C in our revision notes here: 13C NMR 

Selected Organic Molecules

Selected molecules from the AQA A Level Chemistry Data

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  • The AQA Data Sheet also contains the structure of a number of organic molecules which you need to refer to when answering questions as you are not expected to memorise their structures

  • These include phosphates and sugars, bases, amino acids and the structure of the heam group

Organic Question from AQA A Level Chemistry

organic-question-from-aqa-a-level-chemistry

An example of an organic chemistry question where students need to refer to the structures given in the Data Sheet

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Stewart Hird

Author: Stewart Hird

Expertise: Chemistry Lead

Stewart has been an enthusiastic GCSE, IGCSE, A Level and IB teacher for more than 30 years in the UK as well as overseas, and has also been an examiner for IB and A Level. As a long-standing Head of Science, Stewart brings a wealth of experience to creating Topic Questions and revision materials for Save My Exams. Stewart specialises in Chemistry, but has also taught Physics and Environmental Systems and Societies.

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