Correlating thermochemical data for gas-phase ion chemistry

This article presents a brief review of correlation schemes which relate ionization energies, ionic heats of formation, proton affinities and heterolytic bond strengths with some simple property of the ion, most commonly its size. The schemes reviewed here have mainly been developed for homologous series and simple atom or group substitutions at charge-bearing sites. The utility of such schemes is illustrated by appropriate examples. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V.