On the intrinsic reactivity index for electrophilicity/nucleophilicity responses

• Published in: Journal of molecular modeling Vol. 21; no. 3; p. 53
• Main Authors: Chamorro, Eduardo, Melin, Junia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.03.2015
• Subjects: Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry; Chemistry and Materials Science; Computer Appl. in Life Sciences; Computer Applications in Chemistry; Molecular Medicine; Original Paper; Theoretical and Computational Chemistry; Chemical potential; Electrophilicity; Charge transfer; Chemical hardness; Nucleophilicity; Reactivity scales
• ISSN: 1610-2940; 0948-5023
• DOI: 10.1007/s00894-015-2608-2

We present a critical discussion related to the recent definition of the intrinsic reactivity index , IRI, (Tetrahedron Lett. 2013, 54, 339-342; Tetrahedron 2013, 69, 4247-4258) formulated to describe both, electrophilicity (charge acceptance) and nucleophilicity (charge donation) reactivities. We here stress that such an IRI model, based on the quantity μ / η , should be properly related to theoretical approximations associated to the change in the global electronic energy of a given chemical system under interaction with a suitable electron bath (Gazquez JL et al. J Phys Chem A 2007, 111, 1966-1970). Further, the limitations of the IRI model are presented by emphasizing that the intrinsic relative scales of electrophilicity and nucleophilicity within a second-order perturbation approach must account for the further stabilization of the two interacting species (Chamorro E et al. J Phys Chem A 2013, 117, 2636-2643). Graphical Abstract Relative electrophilicity/nucleophilicity reactive responses