Grimm's Hydride Displacement Law is an early hypothesis, formulated in 1925, to describe bioisosterism, the ability of certain chemical groups to function as or mimic other chemical groups.[1][2]
“Atoms anywhere up to four places in the periodic system before an inert gas change their properties by uniting with one to four hydrogen atoms, in such a manner that the resulting combinations behave like pseudoatoms, which are similar to elements in the groups one to four places respectively, to their right.”[3] According to Grimm, each vertical column (of Table below) would represent a group of isosteres.
References ^ Grimm, H. G. Structure and Size of the Non-metallic Hydrides Z. Electrochem. 1925, 31, 474–480. ^ Grimm, H. G. On the Systematic Arrangement of Chemical Compounds from the Perspective of Research on Atomic Composition; and on Some Challenges in Experimental Chemistry. Naturwissenschaften 1929, 17, 557–564. ^ Patani, G. A.; LaVoie, E. J. Bioisosterism: A Rational Approach in Drug Design. Chem. Rev. 1996, 96, 3147–3176. (doi:10.1021/cr950066q PMID 11848856)