Total π-electron energy and Laplacian energy: How far the analogy goes?

Abstract

The Laplacian energy LE is a newly introduced molecular-graph-based analog of the total ?-electron energy E. It is shown that LE and E have a similar structure-dependency only when molecules of different sizes are compared, when a good linear correlation between them exists. Within classes of isomers, LE and E are either not correlated at all or (as in the case of acyclic systems) are inversely proportional. The acyclic graphs and molecular graphs having the greatest and smallest LE values (determined in this work) differ significantly from those (previously known) having the greatest and smallest E values.