In vivo toxicity of nitroaromatic compounds to rats: QSTR modelling and interspecies toxicity relationship with mouse.

•A highly robust QSTR model for the toxicity of NACs to rat was built.•Seven simple and easily interpretable 2D descriptors control the toxicity of NACs.•Two reliable iQTTR models between rat and mouse were developed.•QSTR and iQTTR models were firstly successfully applied to true external sets.•The proposed models can be used for toxicity data filling and risk assessment.