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Mebane et al. nicely correlate the physical properties of organic molecules with computed molecular surface areas (1). This should recall the earlier general (not just for organics) correlation of boiling points with the 3/4 power of the polarizabilities of the outer atoms (2). Polarizability, as noted there, is closely related to volume, and of course area is proportional to the 2/3 power of volume for any given shape. The 3/4 and 2/3 powers differ only slightly, but the former, applied to polarizability (as London theory suggests and as Mebane et al. mention in passing), rather than to volume itself, covers all types of volatile molecules having low polarity, and over a wider range of boiling temperatures, although it has not yet been used for a great variety of physical properties. Students and teachers may wish to be alerted to this related but different work (2). Mebane et al. cite correlations with molecular mass, but the irrelevance of this variable per se has been shown (2, 3). Another problem is that entirely different functions had to be chosen to correlate boiling points for different classes of substance, namely, a logarithmic one for the alkanes, and a second-order polynomial for the alcohols (1). Also the secondary n-alcohols are not further identified, although the 2-alcohols appear to be intended. Literature Cited- Mebane, R. C.; Schanley, S. A.; Rybolt, T. R.; Bruce, C. D. J. Chem. Educ. 1999, 76, 688.
- (a) Rich, R. L. J. Chem. Educ. 1995, 72, 9; (b) Rich, R. L. Bull. Chem. Soc. Japan 1993, 66, 1065.
- Rich, R. L. J. Chem. Educ. 1962, 39, 454.
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