Density functional theory study of 14N isotropic hyperfine coupling constants of organic radicals

Nitrogen hyperfine coupling constants (hfccs) of organic radicals have been calculated by density functional theory (DFT) methodology. The capability of the B3LYP functional, combined with 6-31G*, TZVP and EPR-III basis sets, to reproduce experimental nitrogen coupling constant data has been analyzed for 109 neutral, cationic and anionic radicals, all of them containing at least one nitrogen atom. The results indicate that the selection of the basis set plays an important role in the accuracy of DFT calculations of hfccs, mainly in relation with the composition of the primitive functions and the quantum number of those functions. The main conclusion obtained is the high reliability of the scheme B3LYP/6-31G* for the prediction of nitrogen hfccs with very low computational cost.