QTAIM based descriptors for the classification of acrylates

Acrylates are used in cosmetics, orthopedics, paints, coatings, adhesives, textiles, and biomedical applications such as contact lenses and bone cements. However, some acrylates are mutagenic and the aim of this article is to explain the mutagenicity in terms of the atomic population redistribution in the molecule using two new descriptors which are based on atomic populations framed in the quantum theory of atoms in molecules. They describe the electron-withdrawing effect of a group of atoms in a molecule. The descriptors consider substituents of prop-2-enoates, the number of the acrolein units and the electrophilicity. The cluster analysis using these descriptors allows to classify acrylates in terms of the number of acrolein backbones and the type of the substituent group. Five main groups can be distinguished: monoacrylates with monomethacrylates, diacrylates with dimethacrylates, triacrylates, trimethacrylate and monoacrylates with electron-rich substituents. The substituents of mutagenic acrylates are electron withdrawing. This makes the acrolein backbone β-carbon more electrophilic and the molecule more reactive.