Comparative study on the methods for predicting the reactive site of nucleophilic reaction

Predicting the reactivity of nucleophilic reaction at different sites has important theoretical and practical significance. Many prediction methods solely based on the electronic structure of reactants have been proposed. In this paper, detailed comparative analyses on the reliability of 14 methods are carried out and three series of molecules, carbonyl compounds, aromatic hydrocarbons and pyridine derivatives are exploited as test systems. It is found that the methods reflecting local electronic softness, such as condensed dual descriptor, have satisfactory prediction ability; while the ones reflecting electrostatic effect, such as atomic charge analysis and electrostatic potential analysis, have evidently worse overall performance. For all systems of interest, condensed dual descriptor and Hirshfeld charge display the most robust predictive capacity.