Benchmarking the Fluxional Processes of Organometallic Piano-Stool Complexes

The correlation consistent Composite Approach for transition metals (ccCA-TM) and density functional theory (DFT) computations have been applied to investigate the fluxional mechanisms of cyclooctatetraene tricarbonyl chromium ((COT)Cr(CO)3) and 1,3,5,7-tetramethylcyclooctatetraene tricarbonyl chromium, molybdenum, and tungsten ((TMCOT)M(CO)3 (M = Cr, Mo, and W)) complexes. The geometries of (COT)Cr(CO)3 were fully characterized with the PBEPBE, PBE0, B3LYP, and B97-1 functionals with various basis set/ECP combinations, while all investigated (TMCOT)M(CO)3 complexes were fully characterized with the PBEPBE, PBE0, and B3LYP methods. The energetics of the fluxional dynamics of (COT)Cr(CO)3 were examined using the correlation consistent Composite Approach for transition metals (ccCA-TM) to provide reliable energy benchmarks for corresponding DFT results. The PBE0/BS1 results are in semiquantitative agreement with the ccCA-TM results. Various transition states were identified for the fluxional processes of (COT)Cr(CO)3. The PBEPBE/BS1 energetics indicate that the 1,2-shift is the lowest energy fluxional process, while the B3LYP/BS1 energetics (where BS1 = H, C, O: 6-31G(d′); M: mod-LANL2DZ(f)-ECP) indicate the 1,3-shift having a lower electronic energy of activation than the 1,2-shift by 2.9 kcal mol−1. Notably, PBE0/BS1 describes the (CO)3 rotation to be the lowest energy process, followed by the 1,3-shift. Six transition states have been identified in the fluxional processes of each of the (TMCOT)M(CO)3 complexes (except for (TMCOT)W(CO)3), two of which are 1,2-shift transition states. The lowest-energy fluxional process of each (TMCOT)M(CO)3 complex (computed with the PBE0 functional) has a ΔG‡ of 12.6, 12.8, and 13.2 kcal mol−1 for Cr, Mo, and W complexes, respectively. Good agreement was observed between the experimental and computed 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR chemical shifts for (TMCOT)Cr(CO)3 and (TMCOT)Mo(CO)3 at three different temperature regimes, with coalescence of chemically equivalent groups at higher temperatures.

Critical Benchmarking of the G4(MP2) Model, the Correlation Consistent Composite Approach and Popular Density Functional Approximations on a Probabilistically Pruned Benchmark Dataset of Formation Enthalpies

First-principles calculation of the standard formation enthalpy, $\Delta H_f^0$~(298K), in such large scale as required by chemical space explorations, is amenable only with density functional approximations (DFAs) and some composite wave function theories (cWFTs). Alas, the accuracies of popular range-separated hybrid, `rung-4' DFAs, and cWFTs that offer the best accuracy-vs.-cost trade-off have as yet been established only for datasets predominantly comprising small molecules, hence, their transferability to larger datasets remains vague. In this study, we present an extended benchmark dataset of over two-thousand values of $\Delta H_f^0$ for structurally and electronically diverse molecules. We apply quartile-ranking based on boundary-corrected kernel density estimation to filter outliers and arrive at Probabilistically Pruned Enthalpies of 1908 compounds (PPE1908). For this dataset, we rank the prediction accuracies of G4(MP2), ccCA and 23 popular DFAs using conventional and probabilistic error metrics. We discuss systematic prediction errors and highlight the role an empirical higher-level correction (HLC) plays in the G4(MP2) model. Furthermore, we comment on uncertainties associated with the reference empirical data for atoms and systematic errors introduced by these that grow with the molecular size. We believe these findings to aid in identifying meaningful application domains for quantum thermochemical methods.

Critical Benchmarking of the G4(MP2) Model, the Correlation Consistent Composite Approach and Popular Density Functional Approximations on a Probabilistically Pruned Benchmark Dataset of Formation Enthalpies

First-principles calculation of the standard formation enthalpy, $\Delta H_f^0$~(298K), in such large scale as required by chemical space explorations, is amenable only with density functional approximations (DFAs) and some composite wave function theories (cWFTs). Alas, the accuracies of popular range-separated hybrid, `rung-4' DFAs, and cWFTs that offer the best accuracy-vs.-cost trade-off have as yet been established only for datasets predominantly comprising small molecules, hence, their transferability to larger datasets remains vague. In this study, we present an extended benchmark dataset of over two-thousand values of $\Delta H_f^0$ for structurally and electronically diverse molecules. We apply quartile-ranking based on boundary-corrected kernel density estimation to filter outliers and arrive at Probabilistically Pruned Enthalpies of 1908 compounds (PPE1908). For this dataset, we rank the prediction accuracies of G4(MP2), ccCA and 23 popular DFAs using conventional and probabilistic error metrics. We discuss systematic prediction errors and highlight the role an empirical higher-level correction (HLC) plays in the G4(MP2) model. Furthermore, we comment on uncertainties associated with the reference empirical data for atoms and systematic errors introduced by these that grow with the molecular size. We believe these findings to aid in identifying meaningful application domains for quantum thermochemical methods.