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Context.  Most of the compounds detected in the interstellar medium (ISM) that possess isomers correspond to the thermodynamically most stable isomer of a given chemical formula. Using the minimun energy principle (MEP) as a pragmatic tool is particularly efficient for less than six atoms, but for larger systems combinatorial analysis gives an intractable numbers of isomers.   Aims.  To make the MEP more applicable, we look for a chemical sieve to filter the thermodynamic data needed to determine which isomers of complex organic molecules (COMs) have higher chances of being present in the ISM. To do so, we investigate whether the nature of the [C,N,O] elementary fragment can be determinant for the stabilization of COMs, taking C 2 H 3 NO as a case study.   Methods.  We employed standard quantum chemistry methods to determine the ordering of fragments and derivatives on the energy scale. Density functional theory treatments were systematically performed, together with high-level coupled cluster calculations to refine relative energies.   Results.  For C 2 H 3 NO we find methylisocyanate CH 3 NCO, which is a compound that was very recently detected in the ISM, to be the most stable isomer in a corpus of 40 isomers of lowest energy. In neutral form we find the stability ordering of NCO &gt; ONC; the same is true for the negative ion. Attachments of R=H, CH 3 , C 2 H 5 , HC 2 , H 2 CCH, and C 6 H 5  and metals Al and Mg to the nitrogen atom of the NCO fragment provide the most stable isomers. The energy differences between the successive isomers on the energy scale R-NCO, R-OCN, R-CNO, and R-ONC are of the same order of magnitude for all carbonaceous R.   Conclusions.  Combining the criterion of most stable linkage with the MEP concept should greatly reduce the window of potential targets to be searched for in the ISM. Compounds containing the NCO linkage should be preferential targets of future research.

Relative thermodynamic stability of the [C,N,O] linkages as an indication of the most abundant structures in the ISM