Topological descriptors bond-path

Figure 6.15 Examples of topological descriptors calculated on backbone and R groups of three bidentate ligands. The broken arrows on the left indicate the minimum Pn-P2 connectivity path (Dt) and the second Pn-P2 path (D2). The dotted arrows indicate freely rotating bonds. The R group descriptor SAMR<3 pertains to the sum of the mass units of atoms that are connected within three bonds of the ligating P atoms.

Some of the effects previously described are valuable for automatic RDF interpretation. In fact, this sensitivity is an elementary prerequisite in a rule base for descriptor interpretation. However, since many molecular properties are independent of the conformation, the sensitivity of RDF descriptors can be an undesired effect. Conformational changes occur through several effects, such as rotation, inversion, configuration interchange, or pseudo-rotation, and almost all of these effects occur more or less intensely in Cartesian RDF descriptors. If a descriptor needs to be insensitive to changes in the conformation of the molecule, bond-path descriptors or topological bond-path descriptors are more appropriate candidates. Figure 5.7 shows a comparison of the Cartesian and bond-path descriptors. 

In addition, three distance modes — Cartesian, bond-path, and topological-path distances — are compared. Cartesian RDF descriptors are usually quite sensitive to small constitntional changes in the molecule. The bond-path descriptors exhibit less sensitivity, whereas topological bond-path descriptors only indicate extreme changes in the entire molecnle or in the size of the molecule. 

RDF. The distance mode dehnes the mode for distance calculation available modes are Cartesian distances, bond-path distances, and topological distances. Descriptors may be calculated on particular atoms. Exclusive mode restricts the calculation to the atom type, and with ignore mode the selected atom type is ignored when calculating the descriptor. In partial-atom mode an atom number has to be given instead of the atom type. The second atom property is available if 2D RDF is selected as code method. 

A terminator may be an atom, a lone pair or a bond the link is derived from a topological representation of the molecules as the length of the path between the considered terminators. For each pair of terminators, different REX descriptors are defined according to each different link between them, i.e. all paths and not only the shortest path are considered. 

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