Group contribution method

Have you ever played with building blocks? Imagine each building block is like a letter, and when you put the letters together they make a word. Now imagine you have lots and lots of words that are made up of different blocks. These words are like molecules, which are made up of atoms.

Scientists have found that there are certain groups of atoms that show up again and again in different types of molecules. They call these groups "functional groups". Just like how certain building blocks can be used to make different words, these functional groups can be used to make different molecules.

Using the group contribution method is like having a cheat sheet to help you figure out what molecules are made up of. Scientists have figured out how much each functional group contributes to the properties of a molecule, like its boiling point or its solubility in water. This way, if you know what functional groups make up a molecule, you can figure out what its properties might be.

So, the group contribution method is a way to use information about functional groups to predict the properties of molecules, just like using a cheat sheet to figure out what words can be made up of certain building blocks.