Thirty years of density functional theory in computational chemistry: an overview and extensive assessment of 200 density functionals
Abstract
In the past 30 years, Kohn–Sham density functional theory has emerged as the most popular electronic structure method in computational chemistry. To assess the ever-increasing number of approximate exchange-correlation functionals, this review benchmarks a total of 200 density functionals on a molecular database (MGCDB84) of nearly 5000 data points. The database employed, provided as Supplemental Data, is comprised of 84 data-sets and contains non-covalent interactions, isomerisation energies, thermochemistry, and barrier heights. In addition, the evolution of nonempirical and semi-empirical density functional design is reviewed, and guidelines are provided for the proper and effective use of density functionals. The most promising functional considered is ωB97M-V, a range-separated hybrid meta-GGA with VV10 nonlocal correlation, designed using a combinatorial approach. From the local GGAs, B97-D3, revPBE-D3, and BLYP-D3 are recommended, while from the local meta-GGAs, B97M-rV is the leading choice, followed by MS1-D3 and M06-LD3. The best hybrid GGAs are ωB97X-V, ωB97X-D3, and ωB97X-D, while useful hybrid meta-GGAs (besides ωB97M-V) include ωM05-D, M06-2X-D3, and MN15. Ultimately, today’s state-of-the-art functionals are close to achieving the level of accuracy desired for a broad range of chemical applications, and the principal remaining limitations are associated with systems that exhibit significant self-interaction/delocalisation errors and/or strong correlation effects.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1477255
- Grant/Contract Number:
- AC02-05CH11231
- Resource Type:
- Journal Article: Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Molecular Physics
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 115; Journal Issue: 19; Journal ID: ISSN 0026-8976
- Publisher:
- Taylor & Francis
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY; 74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS; Density functional theory; DFT; benchmark; chemistry database; density functionals
Citation Formats
Mardirossian, Narbe, and Head-Gordon, Martin. Thirty years of density functional theory in computational chemistry: an overview and extensive assessment of 200 density functionals. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1080/00268976.2017.1333644.
Mardirossian, Narbe, & Head-Gordon, Martin. Thirty years of density functional theory in computational chemistry: an overview and extensive assessment of 200 density functionals. United States. doi:10.1080/00268976.2017.1333644.
Mardirossian, Narbe, and Head-Gordon, Martin. Wed .
"Thirty years of density functional theory in computational chemistry: an overview and extensive assessment of 200 density functionals". United States. doi:10.1080/00268976.2017.1333644. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1477255.
@article{osti_1477255,
title = {Thirty years of density functional theory in computational chemistry: an overview and extensive assessment of 200 density functionals},
author = {Mardirossian, Narbe and Head-Gordon, Martin},
abstractNote = {In the past 30 years, Kohn–Sham density functional theory has emerged as the most popular electronic structure method in computational chemistry. To assess the ever-increasing number of approximate exchange-correlation functionals, this review benchmarks a total of 200 density functionals on a molecular database (MGCDB84) of nearly 5000 data points. The database employed, provided as Supplemental Data, is comprised of 84 data-sets and contains non-covalent interactions, isomerisation energies, thermochemistry, and barrier heights. In addition, the evolution of nonempirical and semi-empirical density functional design is reviewed, and guidelines are provided for the proper and effective use of density functionals. The most promising functional considered is ωB97M-V, a range-separated hybrid meta-GGA with VV10 nonlocal correlation, designed using a combinatorial approach. From the local GGAs, B97-D3, revPBE-D3, and BLYP-D3 are recommended, while from the local meta-GGAs, B97M-rV is the leading choice, followed by MS1-D3 and M06-LD3. The best hybrid GGAs are ωB97X-V, ωB97X-D3, and ωB97X-D, while useful hybrid meta-GGAs (besides ωB97M-V) include ωM05-D, M06-2X-D3, and MN15. Ultimately, today’s state-of-the-art functionals are close to achieving the level of accuracy desired for a broad range of chemical applications, and the principal remaining limitations are associated with systems that exhibit significant self-interaction/delocalisation errors and/or strong correlation effects.},
doi = {10.1080/00268976.2017.1333644},
journal = {Molecular Physics},
number = 19,
volume = 115,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2017},
month = {Wed Jun 21 00:00:00 EDT 2017}
}
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