On the basis of our previous work, a new approach 'nitro group charge method (NGCM) is established and applied to understand, evaluate and predict the properties of nitro compounds or explosives, including molecular stability, impact sensitivity and nitrating reaction. At first, the more negative nitro charges (Q(Nitro)) correspond to the more stable nitro Compounds. Secondly, for all nitro explosives in which the R-Nitro bond is the weakest, Q(Nitro) can be regarded as a structural parameter to assess and predict the impact sensitivity. The more negative Q(Nitro) means the higher H-50. Thirdly, the conditions. the velocities and the products' occurrence ratios of some nitrating reactions can he approximately evaluated and compared using NGCM: the more negative Q(Nitro) corresponds to the easier and the faster reaction, and the higher occurrence ratio. Meanwhile, this idea of using charges on common atoms or groups to investigate related properties can be generalized to some other systems such as azide explosives. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.