A critical comparison of CH⋯π versus π⋯π interactions in the benzene dimer: obtaining benchmarks at the CCSD(T) level and assessing the accuracy of lower scaling methods.

We have established CCSD(T)/CBS (Complete Basis Set) limits for 3 stationary points on the benzene dimer potential energy surface, corresponding to the π⋯π (parallel displaced or PD(), minimum) and CH⋯π (T-shaped or T(), transition state) and tilted T-shaped (or TT(), minimum) bonding scenarios considering both the structure and binding energy. The CCSD(T)/CBS binding energies are -2.65 ± 0.02 (PD), -2.74 ± 0.03 (T), and -2.83 ± 0.01 kcal mol (TT). To this end, the CH⋯π is ∼0.2 kcal mol stronger than the π⋯π interaction, whereas the tilting of the CH donating benzene molecule with respect to the other benzene is worth 0.1 kcal mol. As previously discussed in the literature, the MP2 level of theory does not provide a close match for either the energy or structure, yet the SCS-MP2 yields structures in excellent agreement with respect to the CCSD(T) result. It is found that the SCS-MI-MP2 also gives optimized structures very close to SCS-MP2 (within ∼0.01 Å of the benchmark). Despite the closer match in structure, the spin-biased MP2 methods (SCS-, SCS-MI-, and SOS-MP2) incorrectly predict the relative stabilities of the isomers. That said, none of the spin biased MP2 methods offers a good compromise between energy and structure for the systems examined. Finally, the CCSD(T)/CBS benchmarks were used to assess the performance of 13 DFT functionals selected from different rungs of Jacob's ladder. Several functionals such as TPSS-D3, B3LYP-D3, B97-D, B97-D3, and B2PLYP-D3 provided a good description of the binding energies for both CH⋯π and π⋯π interactions, yielding values within 6% of the CCSD(T)/CBS benchmark values. Unlike the MP2 methods, these functionals correctly predict the relative stability of the PD() and T() dimers. Further, we find that there is no systematic improvement as Jacob's ladder is ascended (increased complexity of functional). The best functionals that result in a good compromise between structure and energy accuracy are B97-D3 and B2PLYP-D3 for both the CH⋯π and π⋯π interaction. Despite the impressive performance of these functionals, a challenge that remains is ensuring the transferability of these density functionals in accurately describing the interaction between dimers of larger aromatic molecules, the latter requiring high-level benchmarks for these systems.