Assessment of the “6-31+G** + LANL2DZ” Mixed Basis Set Coupled with Density Functional Theory Methods and the Effective Core Potential: Prediction of Heats of Formation and Ionization Potentials for First-Row-Transition-Metal Complexes

Computational chemists have long demonstrated great interest in finding ways to reliably and accurately predict the molecular properties for transition-metal-containing complexes. This study is a continuation of our validation efforts of density functional theory (DFT) methods when applied to transition-metal-containing systems (Riley, K.E.; Merz, K. M., Jr. J. Phys. Chem. 2007, 111, 6044-6053). In our previous work we examined DFT using all-electron basis sets, but approaches incorporating effective core potentials (ECPs) are effective in reducing computational expense. With this in mind, our efforts were expanded to include evaluation of the performance of the basis set derived to approximate such an approach as well on the same set of density functionals. Indeed, employing an ECP basis such as LANL2DZ (Los Alamos National Laboratory 2 double zeta) for transition metals, while using all-electron basis sets for all other non-transition-metal atoms, has become more and more popular in computations on transition-metal-containing systems. In this study, we assess the performance of 12 different DFT functionals, from the GGA (generalized gradient approximation), hybrid-GGA, meta-GGA, and hybrid-meta-GGA classes, respectively, along with the 6-31+G** + LANL2DZ (on the transition metal) mixed basis set in predicting two important molecular properties, heats of formation and ionization potentials, for 94 and 58 systems containing first-row transition metals from Ti to Zn, which are all in the third row of the periodic table. An interesting note is that the inclusion of the exact exchange term in density functional methods generally increases the accuracy of ionization potential prediction for the hybrid-GGA methods but decreases the reliability of determining the heats of formation for transition-metal-containing complexes for all hybrid density functional methods. The hybrid-GGA functional B3LYP gives the best performance in predicting the ionization potentials, while the meta-GGA functional TPSSTPSS provides the most reliable and accurate results for heat of formation calculations. TPSSTPSS, a meta-GGA functional, which was constructed from first principles and subject to known exact constraints just like in an "ab initio" way, is successful in predicting both the ionization potentials and the heats of formation for transition-metal-containing systems.