Issue 19, 2021

Calculation of absolute molecular entropies and heat capacities made simple

Abstract

We propose a fully-automated composite scheme for the accurate and numerically stable calculation of molecular entropies by efficiently combining density-functional theory (DFT), semi-empirical methods (SQM), and force-field (FF) approximations. The scheme is systematically expandable and can be integrated seamlessly with continuum-solvation models. Anharmonic effects are included through the modified rigid-rotor-harmonic-oscillator (msRRHO) approximation and the Gibbs–Shannon formula for extensive conformer ensembles (CEs), which are generated by a metadynamics search algorithm and are extrapolated to completeness. For the first time, variations of the ro-vibrational entropy over the CE are consistently accounted-for through a Boltzmann-population average. Extensive tests of the protocol with the two standard DFT approaches B97-3c and B3LYP-D3 reveal an unprecedented accuracy with mean deviations <1 cal mol−1 K−1 (about <1–2%) for the total gas phase molecular entropy of medium-sized molecules. Even for the hardship case of extremely flexible linear alkanes (C14H30–C16H34), errors are only about 3 cal mol−1 K−1. Comprehensive tests indicate a relatively strong variation of the conformational entropy on the underlying level of theory for typical drug molecules, inferring the complex potential energy surfaces as the main source of error. Furthermore, we show some application examples for the calculation of free energy differences in typical chemical reactions.

Graphical abstract: Calculation of absolute molecular entropies and heat capacities made simple

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Edge Article
Submitted
01 fev 2021
Accepted
24 mar 2021
First published
25 mar 2021
This article is Open Access

All publication charges for this article have been paid for by the Royal Society of Chemistry
Creative Commons BY license

Chem. Sci., 2021,12, 6551-6568

Calculation of absolute molecular entropies and heat capacities made simple

P. Pracht and S. Grimme, Chem. Sci., 2021, 12, 6551 DOI: 10.1039/D1SC00621E

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. You can use material from this article in other publications without requesting further permissions from the RSC, provided that the correct acknowledgement is given.

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