Calculation of bond dissociation energies for oxygen containing molecules by ab initio and density functional theory methods

Two ab initio (ROHF and MP2), one local (SVWN), four hybrid (BHandH, BHandHLYP, Becke3LYP, and Becke3P86), and two nonlocal (BLYP and BP86) density functional theory (DFT) methods are used for calculating the dissociation energies of molecules that contain H(SINGLE BOND)O, O(SINGLE BOND)O and O(SINGLE BOND)C bonds. The sensitivity to the basis set of the prediction of bond dissociation energies with DFT methods was tested with Becke3LYP on the H(SINGLE BOND)O dissociation energy of water. The 6–31 + G(d) methods are chosen as the smallest basis set which produces reasonable results. The calculated values for all other ab initio and DFT methods were performed with these basis sets and then compared with the experimental data. The suitability of DFT methods for computing reliable bond dissociation energies of oxygen containing molecules is discussed. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.