In this work, the quantitative structure property relationship (QSPR) strategy is applied to predict the normal boiling point (NBP) of pure chemical compounds. In order to propose a comprehensive, reliable, and predictive model, a large dataset of 17,768 pure chemical compounds was exploited. The sequential search mathematical method has been observed to be the only viable search method capable for selection of appropriate model parameters (molecular descriptors) with regard to a data set as large as is used in this study. To develop the model, a three-layer feed forward artificial neural network has been optimized using the Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) optimization strategy. Using this dedicated strategy, satisfactory results were obtained and are quantified by the following statistical parameters: average absolute relative deviations of the predicted properties from existing literature values: 3.2%, and squared correlation coefficient: 0.94. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.