Prediction of the chemiluminescent behaviour of phenols and polyphenols

A paper from this laboratory ‘J. Anal. Chem. 73 (2001) 4301’ was recently published and dealing with the first attempt to apply molecular connectivity calculations to predict a chemical property with analytical usefulness; namely, the chemiluminescent behaviour of substances when react with common strong oxidants in liquid phase. In the present work, the usefulness of molecular topology on the search for new chemiluminescent compounds is clearly demonstrated. The proposed discriminant equation, represented a success of 92.7% in the prediction. The present paper is the further step from the cited paper; it is dealing on the application of molecular connectivity calculations (former discriminant equation ‘J. Anal. Chem. 73 (2001) 4301’) to predict the chemiluminescent behaviour of phenols and polyphenols when they react with common oxidants in liquid phase. A number of phenols and polyphenols (close to 100) were theoretically studied by means of the discriminant equation ‘J. Anal. Chem. 73 (2001) 4301’, being some of them predicted as chemiluminescent with a high probability. These theoretical predictions have been empirically checked through a continuous flow manifold. A number of 33 compounds, selected between those which chemiluminescent behaviour was predicted, were assayed. A success of 100% over the theoretical predictions was obtained.