Proton Affinity Calculations with High Level Methods

Proton affinities, stretching from small reference compounds, up to the methylbenzenes and naphthalene and anthracene, have been calculated with high accuracy computational methods, viz. W1BD, G4, G3B3, CBS-QB3, and M06-2X. Computed and the currently accepted reference proton affinities are generally in excellent accord, but there are deviations. The literature value for propene appears to be 6–7 kJ/mol too high. Reported proton affinities for the methylbenzenes seem 4–5 kJ/mol too high. G4 and G3 computations generally give results in good accord with the high level W1BD. Proton affinity values computed with the CBS-QB3 scheme are too low, and the error increases with increasing molecule size, reaching nearly 10 kJ/mol for the xylenes. The functional M06-2X fails markedly for some of the small reference compounds, in particular, for CO and ketene, but calculates methylbenzene proton affinities with high accuracy.