Comparison of Theoretical Methods and Basis Sets for ab initio and DFT Calculations of the Structure and Frequencies of Normal Vibrations of Polyatomic Molecules

Abstract

The dependence of the quality of calculation of the geometric parameters and frequencies of normal vibrations on the choice of the theoretical method and the basis set of Gaussian functions has been investigated within the framework of four approximations (DFT/B3LYP, HF, MP2, MP3), using benzene and s-triazine molecules as an example. It has been shown that the molecular parameters calculated using the basis set without polarization functions within the framework of any of the above theoretical methods agree poorly with the experimental data. It has been concluded that the use of the basis set 6-31G(d) within the framework of these methods with allowance for the electron correlation for calculating the geometric parameters and frequencies of normal vibrations of polyatomic cyclic compounds is most optimum in terms of the relation between the expenditure of time and the quality of the calculation. The coefficients of linear scaling of frequencies have been obtained by the DFT/B3LYP method for 22 basis sets that were tested on porphin, pyrrole, indene, and pyridine molecules. Atypically large errors in determining the frequencies of some benzene and s-triazine vibrations have been obtained in a number of quantum-mechanical calculations with large basis sets. The changes in the force field for these cases have been investigated with the example of the benzene molecule.