skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: An Assessment of Density Functional Methods for Potential Energy Curves of Nonbonded Interactions: The XYG3 and B97-D Approximations

Journal Article · · Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1021/ct900551z· OSTI ID:986804

A recently proposed double-hybrid functional called XYG3 and a semilocal GGA functional (B97-D) with a semiempirical correction for van der Waals interactions have been applied to study the potential energy curves along the dissociation coordinates of weakly bound pairs of molecules governed by London dispersion and induced dipole forces. Molecules treated in this work were the parallel sandwich, T-shaped, and parallel-displaced benzene dimer, (C6H6)2; hydrogen sulfide and benzene, H2S C6H6; methane and benzene, CH4 C6H6; the methane dimer, (CH4)2; and the pyridine dimer, (C5H5N)2. We compared the potential energy curves of these functionals with previously published benchmarks at the coupled cluster singles, doubles, and perturbative triplets [CCSD(T)] complete-basis-set limit. Both functionals, XYG3 and B97-D, exhibited very good performance, reproducing accurate energies for equilibrium distances and a smooth behavior along the dissociation coordinate. Overall, we found an agreement within a few tenths of one kcal mol-1 with the CCSD(T) results across the potential energy curves.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). National Center for Computational Sciences (NCCS)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
DE-AC05-00OR22725
OSTI ID:
986804
Journal Information:
Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation, Vol. 6, Issue 3; ISSN 1549-9618
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English