Overall connectivities/topological complexities: a new powerful tool for QSPR/QSAR

Earlier attempts to assess the complexity of molecules are analyzed and summarized in a number of definitions of general and topological complexity. A concept which specifies topological complexity as overall connectivity, and generalizes the idea of molecular connectivities of Randic, Kier, and Hall, is presented. Two overall connectivity indices, TC and TC1, are defined as the connectivity (the sum of the vertex degrees) of all connected subgraphs in the molecular graph. The contributions to TC and TC1, which originate from all subgraphs having the same number of edges e, form two sets of eth-order overall connectivities, eTC and eTC1. The total number of subgraphs K is also analyzed as a complexity measure, and the vector of its eth-order components, eK, is examined as well. The TC, TC1, and K indices match very well the increase in molecular complexity with the increase in the number of atoms and, at a constant number of atoms, with the increased degree of branching and cyclicity of the molecular skeleton, as well as with the multiplicity of bonds and the presence of heteroatoms. The potential of the three sets of eth-order complexities for applications to QSPR was tested by the modeling of 10 alkane properties (boiling point, critical temperature, critical pressure, critical volume, molar volume, molecular refraction, heat of formation, heat of vaporization, heat of atomization, and surface tension), in parallel with Kier and Hall's molecular connectivity indices (k)chi. The topological complexity indices were shown to outperform molecular connectivity indices in 44 out of the 50 pairs of models compared, including all models with four and five parameters.