Comparative parametric method 5 (PM5) study of trans-stilbene

In this work we report a comparative Austin method 1 (AM1), parametric method 3 (PM3), and parametric method 5 (PM5) studies for trans-stilbene in its ground, excited (singlet and triplet), and ionic (positive and negative polarons and bipolarons) states. We evaluated the accuracy of the recently developed PM5 method. PM5 and AM1 predict a non-planar ground and singlet states for trans-stilbene, while PM3 predicts planar ones, which is in agreement with the available experimental data. In general the PM3 and PM5 bond lengths are superior to AM1 while AM1 bond angles are superior to PM3 and PM5 when compared with available experimental data. The PM5 underestimates the cis–trans isomerization energy and and it is not a quite reliable method for the calculation of relative IP values. The presumed PM5 superior performance against AM1 and PM3 was not observed for the stilbene structures.