DFT study of ionization potentials and electron affinities of formamide and its methylation derivatives

The ionization potentials (IPs) and electron affinities (EAs) of formamide in the gas phase have been calculated using density functional theory (DFT), ab initio HF and Møller-Plesset perturbational theory (MP) at 6-311++G** basis set. The results indicate that the IPs of formamide obtained with DFT and MP are in agreement with the results obtained from experiment. And B3LYP has been confirmed to be the most accurate method in calculating the AIPs and VIPs of formamide through our work. IPs and EAs of formamide in solution are not known experimentally, therefore IPs and EAs of formamide in chloroform, acetone, and dimethylsulfoxide have been calculated using polarized continuum model (PCM) with B3LYP/6-311++G** level and have been compared with the values in the gas phase. The AIPs and VIPs of formamide have been compared with those of its methylation derivatives. All EAs of methylation derivatives of formamide are bigger than those of formamide conformers in the gas phase with BLYP, B3LYP, and B3P86 methods at 6-311++G** basis set. All these indicate that all anions of methylation derivatives of formamide are more stable than anions of formamide with respect to electron detachment adiabatically and vertically in the gas phase.