Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Substituent shifts of the energetics of four related ionization processes of pyridines and benzoic acids (Fig. I) were investigated. The first process is core-electron ionization of gas-phase pyridines (Fig. 1A), while the second concerns gas-phase acid-base reaction between a substituted pyridine and a Conjugated acid (Fig. 1B), and the third and fourth processes are the acid dissociation of substituted benzoic acids in aqueous solution (Fig. 1C and in vacuum (Fig. 1D), respectively. Core-electron binding energies for the first process Were Calculated using density-functional theory with the scheme Delta E-KS (PW86x-PW91c/TZP+C-ret)//HF/6-31G*. Average absolute deviation of calculated core electron binding energy shifts at N atom in Substituted pyridines from experiment was 0.08 eV. The shift at N coincides highly with that at a ring carbon atom. The four shifts corresponding to the four processes shown in Figs. 1A-D correlate strongly with one another. with numerical values fairly close to each other when expressed in unit of electron volts. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.863416993338Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)FAPESP [2007/58679-8)]CNPq [300467/2003-6]