How strong is it? The interpretation of force and compliance constants as bond strength descriptors.

Knowledge about individual covalent or non-covalent bond strengths is the Holy Grail of many modern molecular sciences. Recent developments of new descriptors for such interaction strengths based on potential constants are summarised in this tutorial review. Several publications for and against the use of compliance matrices (inverse force constants matrix) have appeared in the literature in the last few years. However the mathematical basis for understanding, and therefore interpreting, compliance constants is still not well developed. We therefore summarise the theoretical foundations and point to the advantages and disadvantages of the use of force constants versus compliance constants for the description of both non-covalent and covalent interactions.