Molecular Complexity for Chemical Reactions

Abstract

A new method is presented on how to calculate molecular complexity for chemical reactions by the fractal dimension of educts and products. Two pathways for the total synthesis of strychnine were compared. Significant differences in the two synthesis pathways were reflected by reaction complexity. These results demonstrate that reaction complexity is a powerful measure to group chemical reactions beyond substructural changes.

Keywords

• Molecular complexity
• Natural product synthesis
• Reactions
• Strychnine