Recurrence calculations of organic compound boiling temperatures from data on preceding homologues

A new approach to calculating the temperatures of boiling at atmospheric pressure (T _b) of organic compounds from arbitrary homologous series is suggested. The approach is based on the linear dependence of these values on T _b for the preceding homologues, T _b(n) = aT_b(n ? 1) + b. This dependence, revealed for the first time, was used to obtain a recurrence relation for calculating T _b of organic compounds within any series from the data on three simpler homologues of the same series. The mean a and b values can be used to estimate T _b of an arbitrary organic compound from T _b for one preceding homologue with an accuracy not inferior to that provided by the modern ACD software. Correlations of the general form P(n) = aP(n ? 1) + b are observed not only for the boiling points of organic compounds but also for their other properties P (refractive indexes, relative densities, and ionization energies). This opens up the possibility of creating unified algorithms for calculating various physicochemical constants of organic compounds instead of particular algorithms for every particular property known earlier.