Design of Density Functionals That Are Broadly Accurate for Thermochemistry, Thermochemical Kinetics, and Nonbonded Interactions

Abstract

This paper develops two new hybrid meta exchange-correlation functionals for thermochemistry, thermochemical kinetics, and nonbonded interactions. The new functionals are called PW6B95 (6-parameter functional based on Perdew−Wang-91 exchange and Becke-95 correlation) and PWB6K (6-parameter functional for kinetics based on Perdew−Wang-91 exchange and Becke-95 correlation). The resulting methods were comparatively assessed against the MGAE109/3 main group atomization energy database, against the IP13/3 ionization potential database, against the EA13/3 electron affinity database, against the HTBH38/4 and NHTBH38/04 hydrogen-transfer and non-hydrogen-transfer barrier height databases, against the HB6/04 hydrogen bonding database, against the CT7/04 charge-transfer complex database, against the DI6/04 dipole interaction database, against the WI7/05 weak interaction database, and against the new PPS5/05 π−π stacking interaction database. From the assessment and comparison of methods, we draw the following conclusions, based on an analysis of mean unsigned errors: (i) The PW6B95, MPW1B95, B98, B97-1, and TPSS1KCIS methods give the best results for a combination of thermochemistry and nonbonded interactions. (ii) PWB6K, MPWB1K, BB1K, MPW1K, and MPW1B95 give the best results for a combination of thermochemical kinetics and nonbonded interactions. (iii) PWB6K outperforms the MP2 method for nonbonded interactions. (iv) PW6B95 gives errors for main group covalent bond energies that are only 0.41 kcal (as measured by mean unsigned error per bond (MUEPB) for the MGAE109 database), as compared to 0.56 kcal/mol for the second best method and 0.92 kcal/mol for B3LYP.