QSPR study on the polyacrylate-water partition coefficients of hydrophobic organic compounds

The partition coefficient is essential for the analysis of organic chemicals using solid-phase microextraction (SPME) techniques. In this study, a quantitative structure-property relationship (QSPR) model was developed with chemical descriptors for the prediction of the polyacrylate (PA)-water partition coefficient (K_PA-w). The major variables influencing K_PA-w in the QSPR model were CrippenlogP (crippen octanal-water partition coefficient), RNCG (relative negative charge-most negative charge/total negative charge), VE2_Dzv (average coefficient sum of the last eigenvector from the Barysz matrix/weighted by van der Waals volume), and ATSC4v (centred Broto-Moreau autocorrelation-lag 4/weighted by van der Waals volume). The relative determination coefficient (R²) and cross-validation coefficient (Q²) were 0.898 and 0.858, respectively, which implied that the model had excellent robustness. Mechanistic interpretation suggested that the factors affecting the partitioning process between PA and water are the hydrophobicity, relative negative charge, and van der Waals volume of a chemical. The results of this study provide a good tool for predicting the log K_PA-w values of diverse hydrophobic organic compounds (HOCs) within the applicability domain to reduce experimental costs and the time required for innovation.