Transferability (chemistry)

This article is about transferability in chemistry. For the concept in economic theory, see Transferability (economics).

In chemistry, transferability is the assumption that a chemical property that is associated with an atom or a functional group in a molecule will have a similar (but not identical) value in a variety of different circumstances. Examples of transferable properties include:

• Electronegativity
• Nucleophilicity
• Chemical shifts in NMR spectroscopy
• Characteristic frequencies in Infrared spectroscopy
• Bond length and bond angle
• Bond energy

Transferable properties are distinguished from conserved properties, which are assumed to always have the same value whatever the chemical situation, e.g. standard atomic weight.