Revision and Extension of a Generally Applicable Group Additivity Method for the Calculation of the Refractivity and Polarizability of Organic Molecules at 298.15 K

Abstract

In a continuation and extension of an earlier publication, the calculation of the refractivity and polarizability of organic molecules at standard conditions is presented, applying a commonly applicable computer algorithm based on an atom group additivity method, where the molecules are broken down into their constituting atoms, these again being further characterized by their immediate neighbor atoms. The calculation of their group contributions, carried out by means of a fast Gauss–Seidel fitting calculus, used the experimental data of 5988 molecules from literature. An immediate subsequent ten-fold cross-validation test confirmed the extraordinary accuracy of the prediction of the molar refractivity, indicated by a correlation coefficient R2 and a cross-validated analog Q2 of 0.9997, a standard deviation σ of 0.38, a cross-validated analog S of 0.41, and a mean absolute deviation of 0.76%. The high reliability of the predictions was exemplified with three classes of molecules: ionic liquids and silicon- and boron-containing compounds. The corresponding molecular polarizabilities were calculated indirectly from the refractivity using the inverse Lorentz–Lorenz relation. In addition, it could be shown that there is a close relationship between the “true” volume and the refractivity of a molecule, revealing an excellent correlation coefficient R2 of 0.9645 and a mean absolute deviation of 7.53%.