Mathematical chemistry is the area of research engaged in novel applications of
mathematics to
chemistry; it concerns itself principally with the
mathematical modeling of chemical phenomena. of the book by Ivan Gutman, Oskar E. Polansky, "Mathematical Concepts in Organic Chemistry" in
SIAM Review Vol. 30, No. 2 (1988), pp. 348-350 Mathematical chemistry has also sometimes been called
computer chemistry, but should not be confused with
computational chemistry.
Major areas of research in mathematical chemistry include
chemical graph theory, which deals with
topology such as the mathematical study of
isomerism and the development of
topological descriptors or indices which find application in
quantitative structure-property relationships; and chemical aspects of
group theory, which finds applications in
stereochemistry and
quantum chemistry.
The history of the approach may be traced back into 18th century.
Georg Helm published a treatise titled "The Principles of Mathematical Chemistry: The Energetics of Chemical Phenomena" in 1894. Some of the more contemporary periodical publications specializing in the field are
MATCH Communications in Mathematical and in Computer Chemistry, first published in 1975, and the
Journal of Mathematical Chemistry,...
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