Complete basis set prediction of methanol isotropic nuclear magnetic shieldings and indirect nuclear spin–spin coupling constants (SSCC) using polarization‐consistent and XZP basis sets and B3LYP and BHandH density functionals

Efficient B3LYP and BHandH density functionals were used to estimate methanol's nuclear magnetic isotropic shieldings and spin–spin coupling constants in the basis set limit. Polarization‐consistent pcS‐n and pcJ‐n (n = 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4), and segmented contracted XZP, where X = D, T, Q and 5, basis sets were used and the results fitted with simple mathematical formulas. The performance of the methods was assessed from comparison with experiment and higher level calculations. ¹J(CH) and ³J(HH) values were determined from very diluted solutions in deuterochloroform and compared with theoretical predictions. The agreement between complete basis set (CBS) density functional theory (DFT) predicted isotropic shieldings and spin–spin values and experiment was good. The BHandH/pcS‐n methanol shieldings obtained using structures optimized at the same level of theory are approaching the accuracy of the advanced coupled‐cluster‐singles‐doubles‐approximate triples (CCSD(T)) calculations. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Vibrational frequency scale factors for density functional theory and the polarization consistent basis sets

Calculated harmonic vibrational frequencies systematically deviate from experimental vibrational frequencies. The observed deviation can be corrected by applying a scale factor. Scale factors for: (i) harmonic vibrational frequencies [categorized into low (<1000 cm^?1) and high (>1000 cm^?1)], (ii) vibrational contributions to enthalpy and entropy, and (iii) zero‐point vibrational energies (ZPVEs) have been determined for widely used density functionals in combination with polarization consistent basis sets (pc‐n, n = 0,1,2,3,4). The density functionals include pure functionals (BP86, BPW91, BLYP, HCTH93, PBEPBE), hybrid functionals with Hartree‐Fock exchange (B3LYP, B3P86, B3PW91, PBE1PBE, mPW1K, BH&HLYP), hybrid meta functionals with the kinetic energy density gradient (M05, M06, M05‐2X, M06‐2X), a double hybrid functional with Møller‐Plesset correlation (B2GP‐PLYP), and a dispersion corrected functional (B97‐D). The experimental frequencies for calibration were from 41 organic molecules and the ZPVEs for comparison were from 24 small molecules (diatomics, triatomics). For this family of basis sets, the scale factors for each property are more dependent on the functional selection than on basis set level, and thus allow for a suggested scale factor for each density functional when employing polarization consistent basis sets (pc‐n, n = 1,2,3,4). A separate scale factor is recommended when the un‐polarized basis set, pc‐0, is used in combination with the density functionals. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Prediction of water's isotropic nuclear shieldings and indirect nuclear spin–spin coupling constants (SSCCs) using correlation‐consistent and polarization‐consistent basis sets in the Kohn–Sham basis set limit

Density functional theory (DFT) was used to estimate water's isotropic nuclear shieldings and indirect nuclear spin–spin coupling constants (SSCCs) in the Kohn–Sham (KS) complete basis set (CBS) limit. Correlation‐consistent cc‐pVxZ and cc‐pCVxZ (x = D, T, Q, 5, and 6), and their modified versions (ccJ‐pVxZ, unc‐ccJ‐pVxZ, and aug‐cc‐pVTZ‐J) and polarization‐consistent pc‐n and pcJ‐n (n = 0, 1, 2, 3, and 4) basis sets were used, and the results fitted with a simple mathematical formula. The performance of over 20 studied density functionals was assessed from comparison with the experiment. The agreement between the CBS DFT‐predicted isotropic shieldings, spin–spin values, and the experimental values was good and similar for the modified correlation‐consistent and polarization‐consistent basis sets. The BHandH method predicted the most accurate ¹H, ¹⁷O isotropic shieldings and ¹J(OH) coupling constant (deviations from experiment of about ? 0.2 and ? 1 ppm and 0.6 Hz, respectively). The performance of BHandH for predicting water isotropic shieldings and ¹J(OH) is similar to the more advanced methods, second‐order polarization propagator approximation (SOPPA) and SOPPA(CCSD), in the basis set limit. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Harmonic vibrational frequencies: scale factors for pure, hybrid, hybrid meta, and double-hybrid functionals in conjunction with correlation consistent basis sets

Scale factors for (a) low (<1000 cm(-1)) and high harmonic vibrational frequencies, (b) thermal contributions to enthalpy and entropy, and (c) zero-point vibrational energies have been determined for five hybrid functionals (B3P86, B3PW91, PBE1PBE, BH&HLYP, MPW1K), five pure functionals (BLYP, BPW91, PBEPBE, HCTH93, and BP86), four hybrid meta functionals (M05, M05-2X, M06, and M06-2X) and one double-hybrid functional (B2GP-PLYP) in combination with the correlation consistent basis sets [cc-pVnZ and aug-cc-pVnZ, n = D(2),T(3),Q(4)]. Calculations for vibrational frequencies were carried out on 41 organic molecules and an additional set of 22 small molecules was used for the zero-point vibrational energy scale factors. Before scaling, approximately 25% of the calculated frequencies were within 3% of experimental frequencies. Upon application of the derived scale factors, nearly 90% of the calculated frequencies deviated less than 3% from the experimental frequencies for all of the functionals when the augmented correlation consistent basis sets were used.     

The exact Fermi potential yielding the Hartree–Fock electron density from orbital‐free density functional theory

The exact expression for the Fermi potential yielding the Hartree–Fock electron density within an orbital‐free density functional formalism is derived. The Fermi potential, which is defined as that part of the potential that depends on the particles’ nature, is in this context given as the sum of the Pauli potential and the exchange potential. The exact exchange potential for an orbital‐free density functional formalism is shown to be the Slater potential.     

First‐order correlation‐kinetic contribution to Kohn–Sham exchange charge density function in atoms,using quantal density functional theory approach

Using the static exchange‐correlation charge density concept, the total integrated exchange‐charge density function is calculated within the nonrelativistic spin‐restricted exchange‐only (i) optimized effective potential model, and (ii) nonvariational local potential derived from the exchange‐only work potential within the quantal density functional theory, for the ground‐state isoelectronic series: Ga⁺, Zn, Cu^?; In⁺, Cd, Ag^?; and Tl⁺, Hg, Au^?. The difference between the exchange charge density function derived from these potentials is employed to evaluate the first‐order correlation‐kinetic contribution to the integrated exchange charge density. This contribution is found to be important for both the intra‐ and inter‐shell regions. Screening effects on the contribution due to the nd¹⁰ (n = 3–5) subshells are discussed through comparisons with similar calculations on Ca, Sr, and Ba, wherein nd¹⁰ electrons are absent. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2005     

Revisiting the extrapolation of correlation energies to complete basis set limit

The extrapolation scheme of correlation energy is revisited to evaluate the complete basis set limit from double‐zeta (DZ) and triple‐zeta levels of calculations. The DZ level results are adjusted to the standard asymptotic behavior with respect to the cardinal number, observed at the higher levels of basis sets. Two types of adjusting schemes with effective scaling factors, which recover errors in extrapolations with the DZ level basis set, are examined. The first scheme scales the cardinal number for the DZ level energy, while the second scheme scales the prefactor of the extrapolation function. Systematic assessments on the Gaussian‐3X and Gaussian‐2 test sets reveal that these calibration schemes successfully and drastically reduce errors without additional computational efforts. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Carbondioxide rare‐gas systems: Sensitivity of basis sets and double‐hybrid density functionals

This study emphasizes on the performance of six newly developed double‐hybrid density functionals (DHDF) in explaining the potential energy curves of different carbondioxide rare‐gas systems. The basis set sensitivity has also been explored with the use of three basis sets. Our results suggest that for lighter He/Ne‐CO₂ complexes, proper choice of DHDF and basis set lead to results those matches exactly with earlier calculations and also with the experiment. On the other hand, for heavier Ar/Kr‐CO₂ complexes although the equilibrium separation distance matches exactly with earlier observations, the interaction energy values lie far apart. The overall investigation emphasizes on the fact that one has to tune the methods and basis sets properly to achieve good and satisfactory results. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Comput Chem, 2010     

Improved efficiency of focal point conformational analysis with truncated correlation consistent basis sets

It has been suggested that the computational cost of correlated ab initio calculations could be reduced efficiently by using truncated basis sets on hydrogen atoms (Mintz et al., J Chem Phys 2004, 121, 5629). We now explore this proposal in the context of conformational analysis of small molecules, such as hydrogen peroxide, dimethyl ether, ethyl methyl ether, formic acid, methyl formate, and several small alcohols. It is found that truncated correlation consistent basis sets that lack certain higher angular momentum functions on hydrogen atoms offer accuracy similar to traditional Dunning's basis sets for conformational analysis. Combination of such basis sets with the basis set extrapolation technique to estimate Hartree-Fock and M?ller-Plesset second order energies provides composite extrapolation model chemistries that are significantly more accurate and faster than analogous single point calculations with traditional correlation consistent basis sets. Root mean square errors of best composite extrapolation model chemistries on the used set of molecules are within 0.03 kcal/mol of traditional focal point conformational energies. The applicability of composite extrapolation methods is illustrated by performing conformational analysis of tert-butanol and cyclohexanol. For comparison, conformational energies calculated with popular molecular mechanics force fields are also given.     

Auxiliary basis sets for density‐fitting second‐order Møller–Plesset perturbation theory: Weighted core‐valence correlation consistent basis sets for the 4d elements Y–Pd

Auxiliary basis sets (ABS) specifically matched to the cc‐pwCVnZ‐PP and aug‐cc‐pwCVnZ‐PP orbital basis sets (OBS) have been developed and optimized for the 4d elements Y‐Pd at the second‐order Møller‐Plesset perturbation theory level. Calculation of the core‐valence electron correlation energies for small to medium sized transition metal complexes demonstrates that the error due to the use of these new sets in density fitting is three to four orders of magnitude smaller than that due to the OBS incompleteness, and hence is considered negligible. Utilizing the ABSs in the resolution‐of‐the‐identity component of explicitly correlated calculations is also investigated, where it is shown that i‐type functions are important to produce well‐controlled errors in both integrals and correlation energy. Benchmarking at the explicitly correlated coupled cluster with single, double, and perturbative triple excitations level indicates impressive convergence with respect to basis set size for the spectroscopic constants of 4d monofluorides; explicitly correlated double‐ζ calculations produce results close to conventional quadruple‐ζ, and triple‐ζ is within chemical accuracy of the complete basis set limit. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Applications of density functional theory methods in millimeter‐wave spectroscopy

Density functional theory (DFT), using the most common functionals, and ab initio quantum chemistry methods are used to calculate the rotational constants and dipole moments of the astrophysically important molecules HCN, CH₃CN, CH₃CNH⁺, HCCCN, and HCCNC. As far as millimeter‐wave spectroscopy is of interest the DFT methods performed well with most functionals, giving results within ±1% of experiments for rotational constants and ±3% for dipole moments. Analyzing the results obtained with all theoretical models, it may be concluded that the Becke's three‐parameter exchange functional and the gradient‐corrected functional of Lee, Yang, and Paar (B3LYP) and Becke's three‐parameter functional with Perdew–Wang correlational functional [B3PW91/6‐31G(d, p)] give the best performances. A detailed analysis of the electron correlation effects shows that HCCCN is more stable than is HCCNC, by 1.16 eV, with important contribution arising from triple excitations. This result is also compared with those obtained with DFT methods. Despite occasional difficulties, DFT with the currently available functionals are of great utility in quickly assessing spectroscopic parameters of astrophysical interest. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2003     

B‐spline one‐center method for molecular Hartree–Fock calculations

We introduce one‐center method in spherical coordinates to carry out Hartree–Fock calculations. Both the radial wave function and the angular wave function are expanded by B‐splines to deal with electron‐nucleus cusps, which results in the improved convergence for several typical closed‐shell diatomic molecules with moderate basis numbers. B‐splines could represent both the bound state and continuum state wave functions properly, and the present approach has been applied to investigate the ionization dynamics for H₂ in the intense laser field adopting single‐active‐electron model. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Accurate Gaussian basis sets for the H2O molecule generated with the molecular improved generator coordinate Hartree–Fock method

The molecular improved generator coordinate Hartree–Fock (MIGCHF) method is used to generate accurate basis sets of primitive Gaussian-type functions for the H₂O molecule. Sequences of increasing size atom centered basis sets are employed to explore the accuracy that can be achieved with this method. Using the O(24s14p8d5f2g1h);H(22s9p5d2f1g) basis set, the HF and second-order electron correlation energies of the H₂O ground state at the experimental geometry are computed as −76.0674680 and −0.3491935 hartree, respectively. The HF energy is in error by 20 μhartree and the second-order correlation energy corresponds to 96.5% of an estimate of the limiting value. The relevance of the present calculations is to show the accuracy that can be achieved in studies of small polyatomic molecules with the MIGCHF method.     

Performance of the Harris functional for extended basis sets at the Hartree-Fock and density functional levels

The Harris functional is a noniterative variational procedure that uses an input charge density to produce an energy that is surprisingly accurate compared to the converged Kohn-Sham self-consistent result. We adapted and generalized this functional for the Hartree-Fock closed- and open-shell cases as well as examined its use for hybrid density functional methods such as B3LYP. Analysis of extended basis set calculations shows that at the B3LYP level an input density formed from a double zeta + polarization orbital basis is accurate enough to reproduce the energy of triple zeta + double polarization + diffuse orbital basis. For large molecules this translates into a computational speed that can be an order of magnitude faster. In the case of Hartree-Fock calculations a "bootstrapping technique" that employs successive applications of the Harris functional can further reduce computational times while retaining sufficient accuracy.     

An improved generator coordinate Hartree–Fock method applied to the choice of contracted Gaussian basis sets for first‐row diatomic molecules

Accurate Gaussian basis sets (18s for Li and Be and 20s11p for the atoms from B to Ne) for the first‐row atoms, generated with an improved generator coordinate Hartree–Fock method, were contracted and enriched with polarization functions. These basis sets were tested for B₂, C₂, BeO, CN⁻, LiF, N₂, CO, BF, NO⁺, O₂, and F₂. At the Hartree–Fock (HP), second‐order Møller–Plesset (MP2), fourth‐order Møller–Plesset (MP4), and density functional theory (DFT) levels, the dipole moments, bond lengths, and harmonic vibrational frequencies were studied, and at the MP2, MP4, and DFT levels, the dissociation energies were evaluated and compared with the corresponding experimental values and with values obtained using other contracted Gaussian basis sets and numerical HF calculations. For all diatomic molecules studied, the differences between our total energies, obtained with the largest contracted basis set [6s5p3d1f], and those calculated with the numerical HF methods were always less than 3.2 mhartree. © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 78: 15–23, 2000     

Hartree–Fock wave functions with a modified GTO basis for atoms

We have solved the atomic Hartree–Fock equations by using the algebraic approach, expanding the single-particle radial wave function in terms of a modified Gaussian type orbitals (GTOs) basis. Several atomic properties such as Kato's cusp condition for the electron density or the correct asymptotic behavior of the electron momentum density distribution are accurately verified. Additionally the energy of the atomic ground state can be obtained by using a smaller number of basis functions than in standard GTO expansions. This study has been performed for several atoms of the first three rows. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Int J Quant Chem 65 : 59–64, 1997     

Adapted Gaussian basis sets for atoms Cs to Lr based on the generator coordinate Hartree–Fock method

We have applied a discretized version of the generator coordinate Hartree–Fock method to generate adapted Gaussian basis sets for atoms Cs (Z=55) to Lr (Z=103). Our Hartree–Fock total energy results, for all atoms studied, are better than the corresponding Hartree–Fock energy results attained with previous Gaussian basis sets. For the atoms Cs to Lr we have obtained an energy value within the accuracy of 10⁻⁴ to 10⁻³ hartree when compared with the corresponding numerical Hartree–Fock total energy results. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Comput Chem 19: 858–865, 1998     

Towards a complete basis set limit of Hartree–Fock method: correlation-consistent versus polarized-consistent basis sets

In this paper the convergence pattern of correlation-consistent (cc-pVxZ) and polarized-consistent (PC-n) hierarchies relative to the complete basis set limit have been considered in a small set of diatomic molecules. Using the sequence of these basis sets it was demonstrated that potential energy surfaces derived from basis-set-dependent solution of the Hartree–Fock equations achieves the exact numerical derived potential energy surfaces (PESs) in an ordered manner. So it was possible to compute the spectroscopic parameters in the complete basis set limit with considerable accuracy using the most extended members of both hierarchies. On the other hand, for the first time the detailed convergence patterns of total energies in three separate inter-nuclear distances have been considered in these molecules and it was demonstrated that the total energies arrive at microhartree accuracy at a considerable rate. Possible performance of extrapolation schemes is discussed and it was demonstrated that reliable extrapolation procedures indeed exist. A successful test of the proposed extrapolation method, using the three most extended members of polarized-consistent basis sets, has been accomplished on selected polyatomic molecules.     

Basis set dependence of phosphate frequencies in density functional theory calculations

The addition of extravalence, polarization and diffuse functions, were studied in order to conclude how they affect the P? O stretching frequencies of several biological relevant phosphate molecules. The results show that the polarization and the diffuse functions have opposite effects on the frequencies: the polarization functions downshift while the diffuse functions upshift the frequencies. The effect of the valence functions was more difficult to interpret. The effect of the conductor‐like screening model (CPCM)‐continuum model was also studied. The results show that the CPCM‐continuum model has a substantial effect on the frequencies for these small molecules. The continuum model's efficiency is mainly due to its effect on the geometries and not on the frequencies. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2012