A simple, fast and convenient new method for predicting the stability of nitro compounds

A new method has been proposed to understand and predict the stability of nitro compounds. This method uses the maximum electron densities at the critical points of two N–O bonds of nitro groups (ρ max), and it is more simple and faster than the existing methods and applicable to bigger systems. The correlations between the ρ max and total energy (E), bond lengths ( $$ R_{{{\text{C}}{-}{\text{NO}}_{2} }} $$ , $$ R_{{{\text{N}}{-}{\text{NO}}_{2} }} $$ and $$ R_{{{\text{O}}{-}{\text{NO}}_{2} }} $$ ), bond dissociation energy (BDE), and impact sensitivity (h 50) reveal that the molecular stability, which can be reflected by E, R, BDE and h 50, generally decreases with the increasing ρ max. The compound with the larger ρ max is less stable. For the nitrating reaction, the smaller ρ max of the product generally implies the easier and faster reaction and the higher occurrence ratio of the product. Therefore, ρ max can be applied to predict the stability of nitro compounds and the easiness of the nitrating reaction.